Uncle Sam Detective

ke it you would like to earn the

the Washington headquarters. "If I say yes, you will hand me a large piece of hard work. If I say no, I

10,000 tons of sugar from Cuba, it pays duty that depends on the purity of the cargo. If that sugar is graded at 92 per cent. pure it gets in a half cent a po

himself, "I have earned my salary for the res

a cent a pound on all the sugar imported, you would bring into the coffers a round two

r," said Gard. "I am ready to rush into

to determine the method of it. The criminals, particularly the big ones, are to be apprehended. The Government would like to know how these frauds may be pre

eatest importers of raw sugar in the nation. According to this card Gard was a writer of magazine stories. He had explained in asking for

the most striking young women he had ever seen. Corn-colored hair gone mad in its tendency to curl made a perfect frizzle about her face. A flock of freckles, each seemingly in pursuit of its fellow just ahead, were hurdling the bridge of a

ll presented

Swede," said the big man

so wanted to know what a writer did when he

lusion if you do," said Gard. "A

. "Do let me see how it is done!

erviewer explains the idea that is on his mind that requires elucidation. Has the man being interviewed anything on hand, already prepared, that covers the ground. Maybe he has made a speech at a convention, or something of that sort. The idea is to save labor for both. Mr. Gottrell is now looking for the report of his testimony before the committee on tariff revisi

it does so easily a thing that looks so hard. It does

It was in this way that he was enabled to ask many questions that might have aroused suspicion had he been there in any other guise than that of a writing man. It was in thi

ok and the possibility of fraud at each step. He spent days observing the methods of the weighers. He watched every detail of the trans

t came out full of that which was within. This constituted the sample for a given sack. Each sample was made into a little package, carefully labeled

They were always run along the side of the sack and never plunged into its very heart. Tobin, the little consumptive, sampled in this peculiar way, as did the

ook two samples-one from the very heart and one from the outside rim. These he had tested in the laboratory. That from the middle of the

re, and that that portion of it which is exposed does so. The sugar near the outside came in contact with the air which contained moisture, while that on the inside did not. The refiners were, of course, aware of th

er in the person of a roughly dressed young laborer who did not drink as heavily as some of his fellows, but was none the less willing to buy for others. But what was vastly more in his favor in the eyes of Flavot than

han honest men of their salaries should have. The individual who makes illicit money usually spends it lavishly and it should therefore be easy to determine if the samplers were being paid to be crooked. And Gard, after t

nths. He came to be most intimately one of them, was given every opportunity for observing their work, was even intrusted with certain

ayed through her childhood on the docks and about the warehouse and was not yet averse to climbing stacks of sugar sacks or descending into the hold of the ships. So it happened

lifted by mighty derricks, when Miss Gottrell strolled down the docks under a pink parasol and in the midst of an array of fluf

and intelligence and inspiration. And it was spring and he was a youngster shut off from his kind and lonesome. He had thought of her a lot of times since that day he

t majestically over the dock. In doing so it described a great sweep in reaching the spot where it was to be deposited. In the midst of t

g beneath it was gazing away to where a sail was just taking the fresh breeze. Billy Gard and his truck were emerging from the

e catapulted sugar sack, much as he had often tackled the member of an opposing team who tried to go around his end in the old football days.

ard was getting himself to his feet. She ran to him spontaneously and would

-Oh! What? It is Mr. Gard, isn't it? How in the world-" S

would all be spoiled if you did. A writing man must have color, must know lif

me to deny any wish of yours. But I will agree not to tell only on one conditi

ise," s

ink you are wonderful to do the th

in his grimy workingman's ha

the year the Continental Refining Company was busy with sugar that poured in upon it from Cuba and Porto Rico and Santo Domingo and other lands to t

ld be scattered about at many places and would play their part in the handling of the raw sugar that came from the canefields of Louisiana and the beet lands of Colorado an

s. But his case might still be strengthened, for he wanted the whole story from a man who participated in the irregularities, and in such a way that it might be introduce

chman. He led three lusty cheers for that time, for none was so abandoned on these occasions as the youngster who had saved the president's daughter. And Flavot and Billy interchanged a wink, for they had a secret between them. Both knew th

f late frequented the place-a seedy, long-haired, sallow man who worked always with pencil over the manuscript of a pl

er, one-time court reporter, the man who had handled the listening end of many a dictagraph

ying, "where can I meet you whe

ou Fouche mill

o Colorado for my lungs," s

the refinery," ventu

am does not care if he lays good men off half the time

the consumptive Tobin. "Don't we save them

that?" a

to me that you are a good little asker of questions. Why a

d. "I am Chief W

g," said Hansen. "

agent. "Don't you suppose I read dete

s facts and the apparent error

o be a sampler next season, I might as well put you wise. We are all taken

xcept the frowsy dramatist, who was absorbed in his manuscript. He

ad to stand a chance of loafing for five. So the company passes the word that if the boys do the right thing they will

the boys to sample right,' he says, 'and th

mean, sample r

and a dry one that she grades 94. A sampler can get a

the records who was getting wet sugar. Not a dry sugar man got a job. You ask Tobin. He was one of the guys who held out for honesty. But it was a hard season for Tobin, w

o get a sampler's job next year you better pas

p air when it is aboard ship, and it often comes handy, not altogether by accident, for a sack of sugar to get a chance to lie on a wet board. The sugar on the outside naturally gets

ery drop is worth its weight in gold a hundred times to the refiners. It would surprise you to learn how cleverly the sampler learns to spit a bit of tobacco juice into his tube. You have worked on the docks for a

the dock take wet sampl

u know," said Ha

, Cunningham?

work," said

you,

little consumptive, "but cou

rs present p

hing for it but a little of

sell out cheap and the company makes barrels of money out of the

able to make these samplers tell their stories in court. Soon the two faded away without being missed, but they took with them a complete case

st him. With him he had gone over the record of the business of the refiners since that period, eight years previous, when the wet sample scheme had been inaugurated. He had worked out an estimate of the probable duty that the Government h

the circumstances, feel itself somewhat to blame for the conditions that had existed. It is not recorded whether the vision of a girl with frizzly, corn-colored hair came into the mind of the special agent and had to do with his recommendations that the case be settled out of court. But certain it is tha

e was settled. Billy Ga

shington when there arrived by messenger a little, square, delicately scented

let me say, "Splendid!" And remember that you promis

a Got

good reason why Gard was a da