Free Audiobooks Short Stories from Locomotive Engineers Journal Robbery Plot Went Astray.

section 2 of short stories from locomotive engineers journal volume 52 this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by jedediah brewster tacoma washington short stories from locomotive engineers journal volume 52 by various robbery plot went astray by howard fielding

my visitor had an excellent counterfeit of a frank demeanor yet i observed that he desired strict privacy for our interview and that he was interested in the question whether the sound of our voices would penetrate the thin partition which separated my modest sanctum from the composing room of the newspaper he drew a chair very close to mine and laid a clipping on the desk could you tell me said he who wrote that article it was a labored disquisition on the reading of cryptograms and had been printed in last week's saturday supplement with small hope on my part that it would amuse anybody in our town certainly said i it was written by david graham foreman of my composing room could i see mr graham he asked you may send him your card said i the real one not the one you sent to me he eyed me with mild surprise what makes you think he began but i cut in upon him i don't think i know you are a post office detective and your name is charles baxter you are in this town to investigate the robbery here last week i'm investigating it also as a part of my business and that's how i happen to know you right said he but as for the card we shall not need it now i'll send for mr graham my foreman was a tall thin long-faced scot with a hard mouth and a mild eye i want you to help me in the matter of this post office robbery said baxter coming right to the point the job was done by two men and we know one of them but it's the other who has the plunder the fellow we've got our eyes on hasn't ascent of it and he's keeping away from it and from his pal he's as smooth an article as i've encountered in many a day we could arrest him any minute but though we have a moral certainty that he's guilty i couldn't bank so high on the legal evidence and anyhow we should lose the pal and the swag for it's a sure thing that our man wouldn't squeal he hasn't been near this town since the night of the robbery he's living in a boarding house in stanhope 20 miles west of us and his patience seems to be about as long suffering as ours his only mistake is that he writes letters and we've trapped one of them he started to mail it yesterday afternoon and dropped it on the street one of my men who was shadowing him nabbed it in a holy second and here it is baxter laid an envelope on the leaf of my desk between graham and me we saw that it was addressed to miss annie davenport a young woman much admired in our town and of unblemished reputation i was amazed and distressed that her name should be brought into such an affair it's open said the detective to graham see what you can make of it i'm not so clear as to that answered graham it would appear to me that i might like the young lady's permission upon this baxter made quite a flowery argument speaking of the interests of justice and other lofty considerations but graham and i were not impressed who wrote this i asked when the detective paused for breath you'll know the name said he walter allen i did indeed know the name and the man alan was the sole survivor of a family that had once been prominent in our town he himself had been a wild youth and his reputation had not improved with added years he had inherited a small property from his father and was supposed to have squandered it the homestead had been sold in foreclosure proceedings within a year and little had been seen of allen in stockton since then i knew however that he had once been very attentive to annie davenport but had been supplanted in her affections if indeed he ever...