Ep. 13 - The Trail of the White Mice

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Chapter thirteen, The Trail of theWhite Mice. The United States Secret Service,
announced Bill Quinn, is, bylong odds, the best known branch
of the governmental detective bureaus. Theterror which the Continental crook feels at the
sound of the name Scotland Yard findsits echo on this side of the Atlantic.

(00:24):
Whenever a criminal knows that he hasrun afoul of the U. S.
S S for Uncle Sam never forgivesan injury or forgets a wrong.
Sooner or later, He's going toget his man, no matter how long
it takes, nor how much moneyit costs. But the Secret Service,
strictly speaking, is only one branchof the organization. There are others which

(00:50):
work just as quietly and just aseffectively. The Department of Justice, which
had charge of the violation of neutralitylaws banking and alike. The Treasury Department,
which, through the Custom Service andthe Bureau of Internal Revenue, wages
constant war on the men and womenwho think they can evade the import regulations

(01:12):
and the laws against illicit manufacture ofalcohol. The Pension Bureau of the Interior
Department, which is called upon tohandle hundreds of frauds every year, and
the Post Office Department, which guardsthe millions of dollars entrusted to the mails.

(01:32):
Each of these has its own province, each works along its own line
in conjunction with the others, andeach of them is, in reality a
secret organization which performs a vastly importantservice to the nation as a whole.
When you speak of the Secret Service, the Treasury Department's organization comes immediately to

(01:53):
mind, coupled with a panorama ofcounterfeiters, anarchists, revolutionaries and the like.
But the field of the Secret Serviceis really limited when compared to the
scope of the other organizations. Lookaround this room, and he made a
gesture which included the four walls ofthe library den in which we were seated,

(02:16):
a room in which the usual decorationshad been replaced by a strange collection
of unusual and in a number ofinstances, gruesome relics. Every one of
those objects is a memento of someexploit of the men engaged in secret service.
Quinn went on that Chinese hatchet upthere came very close to being buried

(02:39):
in the skull of a man inSan Diego, But its principal mission in
life was the solution of the mysterysurrounding the smuggling of thousands of pounds of
opium. That water stained cup wasfished out of the Missouri River after its
owner had apparently committed suicide, butthe Pension Bureau located him seven years later

(03:02):
with the aid of a fortune tellerin Seattle. At the side of the
bookcase, there you will find severalof the original poison pen letters which created
so much consternation in Kansas City afew years ago, letters which Allison of
the Postal Inspection Service finally traced totheir source after the local authorities had given

(03:25):
up the case as impossible of solution. The woman whose picture appears on the
other wall was known as missus Armitage, and that was about all they did
know about her, save that shewas connected with one of the foreign organizations,
and that in some mysterious way,she knew everything that was going on

(03:46):
in the State Department almost as soonas it was started. And there under
that piece of silk, which figuredin one of the boldest smuggling cases that
the Treasury Department ever tackled, isthe blurred post mark, which eventually led
to the discovery of the man whomurdered Montgomery Marshal a case in which our

(04:08):
old friend Sherlock Holmes would have reveled. But it's doubtful if he could have
solved it any more skillfully than didone of the Post Office operators. What's
the significance of that white mouse onthe mantelpiece, I inquired, sensing the
fact that Quinn was in one ofhis story telling moods. It hasn't any

(04:30):
significance, replied the former government agent. But it has a story, one
which illustrates my point that all thenation's detective work isn't handled by the Secret
Service by a long shot. Didyou ever hear of H. Gordon Fowler
alias W. C. Evans,No, I replied, I don't think

(04:56):
I ever did. Well. Alot of people have, to their sorrow,
laughed Quinn, reaching for his pipe. No one appears to know what
Fowler's real name is, continued theformer operative. He traveled under a whole
flock of aliases which ran the gamutof the alphabet, from Andrews to Zachary.

(05:18):
But to save mixing things up,supposed that we assumed that his right
name was Fowler. He used itfor six months at one time out of
Minneapolis and got away with twenty thousanddollars worth of stuff. For some time
previous to Fowler's entrance upon the scene, various wholesale houses throughout the country had

(05:42):
been made the victims of what appearedto be a ring of bankruptcy experts,
men who would secure credit for goods, open a store, and then fail.
Meanwhile, the merchandise would have mysteriouslyvanished, and the proprietor who would
be away on a vacation from whichof course he would never return. On

(06:04):
the face of it, this wasa matter to be settled solely by the
wholesaler's credit association, but the PostalInspection Service got into it through the fact
that the mails were palpably being usedwith intent to defraud, and therefore Uncle
Sam came to the aid of thebusiness men. On the day that the

(06:26):
matter was reported to Washington, thechief of the Postal Inspection Service pushed the
button which operated a buzzer in theouter office and summoned Hal Preston, the
chap who later on was responsible forthe solution of the martial murder mystery.
Hal said the chief with a smile, here's a case I know you'll like.

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It's right in the line of routine, and it ought to mean a
lot of traveling around the country,quick jumps at night, and all that
sort of stuff. Preston grunted,but said nothing. You couldn't expect to
draw the big cases every time,and besides, there was no telling when

(07:10):
something might break, even in themost prosaic of assignments. Grant Wilcox and
Company in Boston report that they've beenstung twice in the same place by a
gang of bankruptcy sharks. The chiefwent on, and they're not the only
ones who have suffered. Here's alist of the concerns and the men that

(07:30):
they've sold to. You'll see thatit covers the country from Joaquim, Washington
to Montclair, New Jersey. Sothey appear to have their organization pretty well
in hand. Ordinarily we wouldn't figurein this thing at all, but the
gang made the mistake of placing theirorders through the mail, and now it's

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up to us to land em.Here's the dope op to it. That
night, while en route to MountClemmen's, Michigan, where the latest of
the frauds had been perpetrated, pressedand examined the envelope full of evidence and
came to a number of interesting conclusions. In the first place, the failures

(08:15):
had been staged in a number ofdifferent localities. Erie, Pennsylvania, had
had one of them under the nameof Colan Hill. There had been another
in Sioux City, where Emerling Brothershad failed. Metcalfe and Newman, Illinois
had likewise contributed their share, ashad Minneapolis, Newark, Columbus, White

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Plains, and Newburgh, New York, San Diego, California, Joaquim Washington,
and several other points. But thepoint that brought Hal up with a
jerk was the dates attached to eachof these affairs. No two of them
had occurred within six months of theother, and several were separated by as

(09:01):
much as a year. Who saidthis was a gang, he muttered,
looks a lot more like the workof a single man with plenty of nerve.
And from the amount of stuff hegot away with, he ought to
be pretty nearly in the millionaire classby now. There's over two hundred thousand
dollars worth of goods covered by thisreport alone, and there is no certainty

(09:26):
that it is complete. Well,here's hoping. It's always easier to trail
one man than a whole bunch ofthem. In Mount Clemens, Preston found
further evidence which tended to prove thatthe bankruptcy game was being worked by a
single nervy individual posing under the nameof Henry Girard. Girard, it appeared,

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had entered the local field about ayear before, apparently with plenty of
capital, and had opened two prosperousstores on the principal Street in August,
about two months before Preston's arrival.The proprietor of the Girard stores had left
on what was apparently scheduled for atwo weeks vacation. That was the last

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that had been heard of him,in spite of the fact that a number
of urgent creditors had camped upon histrail very solicitously. The stores had been
looted, only enough merchandise being leftto keep up the fiction of a complete
stock, and Girard had vanished withthe proceeds. After making a few guarded

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inquiries in the neighborhood of the store, Preston sought out the house where Girard
had boarded during his stay in MountClemens. There he found that the missing
merchant, in order to allay suspicion, had paid the rental of his apartment
for three months in advance, andthat the place had not been touched since

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save by the local authorities who hadbeen working on the case. You won't
find a thing there, the Chiefof police informed hal in response to a
request for information. Girard skipped,and that's all there is to it.
We've been over the place with afine toothed comb, and there ain't a
scrap of evidence. We did findsome telegrams torn up in his waistebasket,

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but if you can make anything outof him, it's more than I can.
And he handed over an envelope filledwith scraps of finely torn yellow paper.
Not the slightest indication of where Girardwent, inquired Preston, as he
tucked the envelope in an inside pocket. Not a bit, echoed the chief.

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He may be in China now,so far as we know, was
he married? Nobody here knows nothingabout him, the Chief persisted. They
do say, as how, hewas right sweet on a girl named Anna
something or other who lived in thesame block, But she left town before

(12:07):
he did, and she ain't comeback neither. What did you say,
Her name was Anna Vaughan, Ibelieve she called herself. You might ask
missus Morris about her. She hada room at her place, only a
few doors away from where Girard stayed. The apartment of the man who had

(12:30):
vanished, Preston found was furnished inthe manner typical of a thousand other places.
Every stick of furniture appeared to haveseen better days, and no two
pieces could be said to match.Evidently, Girard had been practicing economy in
his domestic arrangements in order to saveall the money possible for a quick getaway.

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What was more, he had carefullyremoved everything of a personal nature,
save a row of books, whichdecorated the mantelpiece in one of the rooms.
It was toward these that Preston finallyturned in desperation. All but one
of them were the cheaper grade offiction, none of which bore any distinguishing

(13:16):
marks. But the exception was anew copy of the latest railroad Guide.
Just as Preston pounced upon this,he heard a chuckle from behind him,
and whirling saw the Chief of Policejust entering the door. Needn't worry with
that, young man, he urgedI've been all through it and there ain't

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nothing in it. Just thought i'ddrop up to see if you had found
anything, he added, in explanationof his sudden appearance. Have you no,
admitted the postal operative can't say thatI have. This is the first
piece of personal property that I've beenable to locate, and you say there

(14:00):
is nothing in this. Narry aclue, persisted the chief. But Preston,
as if loath to drop the onlytangible reminder of Gerard, idly flipped
the pages of the guide and thenstood it on edge on the table,
the covers slightly opened. Then,as the chief watched him curiously, he

(14:22):
closed the book, opened it again, and repeated the operation. What's the
idea trying to make it do tricks, the chief asked, as hal stood
the book on edge for the thirdtime. Hardly that just working on a
little theory of my own, wasthe response, as the post office man

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made a careful note of the pagesat which the guide had fallen open,
the same one which had presented itselfto view on two other occasions. Here
would you like to try it?And he handed the volume to the chief.
But that functionary only shrugged his shouldersand replaced the guide upon the mantelpiece.

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Some more of your high falutin detectivework, eh, he muttered.
Soon you'll be claiming that book cantalk, possibly not out loud, smiled
hal, but they can be madeto tell very interesting stories now and then
if you know how to handle em. There doesn't seem to be much here,

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chief, So I think I'll goback to the hotel. Let me
know if anything comes up, willyou, And with that he left.
But before returning to the hotel,he stopped at the house where Anna Vaughan
had resided and found out from therather garrulous landlady that Gerard had appeared to
be rather smitten with the beautiful stranger. She certainly was dressed to kill,

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said the woman who ran the establishment. A big woman and strong is all
outdoors. Mister Gerard came here threeor four nights a week while she was
with us, and he didn't seemto mind the mice at all, mind
the what snapped preston the mice,the white mice that she used to keep

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his pets, explained The landlady hadhalf a dozen or more of them running
over her shoulders. But I toldher that I couldn't stand for that.
She could keep him in her roomif she wanted to, but I had
to draw the line somewhere. Guessit was on their account that she didn't
have any other visitors so far asI know. Mister Gerard was the only

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one who called on her. Whendid miss Vaughan leave, Hall inquired,
missus Vaughan corrected the woman she wasa widow, though she was young and
pretty enough to have been married anytimeshe wanted to be. Guess the men
wouldn't stand for them mice. Thoughshe didn't stay very long, just about

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six weeks, left somewheres about themiddle of July, about two weeks before
Girard did about that, though Idon't just remember the date. A few
more inquiries elicited the fact that missusVaughan's room had been rented since her departure,

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so Preston gave up the idea oflooking through it for possible connecting links
with the expert in bankruptcy. Returningto the hotel, the operative settled down
to an examination of the scraps oftorn telegrams which the chief had handed him.
Evidently they had been significant. Heargued for Girard had been careful to

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tear them into small bits, andit was long past midnight before he had
succeeded in piecing the messages together,pasting the scraps on glass in case there
had been any notations on the reverseof the blank. But when he had
finished, he found that he onlyhad added one more puzzling aspect to the

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case. There were three telegrams filedwithin a week, and all dated just
before Gerard had left town. Geraldine, Anna May and Florence are in Chicago,
read the message from Evanston, Illinois. George, William, Katherine Ray

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and Stephen still in Saint Louis,was the wire filed from Detroit. The
third message from Minneapolis detailed the factthat Frank, Vera, Marguerite, Joe,
and Walter are ready to leave SaintPaul. None of the telegrams was
signed, but merely as a precaution, Preston wired Evanston, Detroit and Minneapolis

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to find out if there was anyrecord of who had sent them. Agent
here recalls message. Came the answerfrom Detroit the next day, filed by
a woman who refused to give hername. Agent says sender was quite large,
good looking, and very well dressed. Anna Vaughan, muttered Preston as

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he took the telegram in his pocketand asked to be shown a copy of
the latest Railway Guide, referring toa note which he had made on the
previous evening. Hal turned to pagetwo fifty one and two, the part
of the book which had fallen openthree times in succession when he had examined

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it in Gerard's rooms, and notedthat it was the adjacent Topeka and Santa
Fe timetable westbound. Evidently, themissing merchant had invested in a copy of
the Guide rather than run the riskof leaving tell tale timetables around his apartment.

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But he had overstepped himself by referringto only one portion of the book.
Not the first time that a crookhas been just a little too clever,
mused Preston with a smile. Ifit had been an old copy,
there wouldn't have been any evidence.But a new book, opened several times
at the same place, can bemade to tell tales. His honor,

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the chief of Police to the contrary. It was clear therefore that Preston had
three leads to work on, anda Vaughan a large, beautiful woman,
well dressed and with an affection forwhite mice. The clue that Gerard was
somewhere in the southwest, and atleast the first name of fourteen men and

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women connected with the gang. Butright there he paused, was there any
gang? The dates of the variousdisappearances tended to prove that there wasn't,
but the messages received by Girard certainlyappeared to point to the fact that others
were connected with the conspiracy to defraud. Possibly one of the clerks who had

(21:14):
been connected with the Girard stores wouldbe able to throw a little light upon
the situation. It wasn't until Halinterviewed the woman who had acted as cashier
and manager for the second store thathe found the lead he was after.
In response to his inquiry as towhether she had ever heard the missing proprietors

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speak of any of the persons mentionedin the wires, the cashier at first
stated definitely that she hadn't, butadded a moment later, come to think
of it, he did not aspeople, but as trunks. What's that?
Exclaimed the operative trunks. Yes,I remember some time last spring when

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we were figuring on how much summergoods we ought to carry. I mentioned
the matter to mister Gerard, andalmost automatically, he replied, I'll wire
for Edna and Grace, Thinking hemeant saleswomen. I reminded him that we
had plenty, particularly for the slackseason. He colored up a bit,

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caught his breath, and turned tothe subject by stating that he always referred
to trunks of goods in terms ofpeople's first names, girls for the feminine
stuff and men's for the masculine.But Edna and Grace weren't on your lists,
were they No, replied Preston.But that doesn't matter. Besides,

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didn't the two trunks of goods arrive? Yes, they came in a couple
of weeks later, before missus Vaughancame to town. Oh yes, some
time before she arrived. I thought, so, was Preston's reply. And
thanking the girl, he wandered backto the hotel, convinced that he had

(23:14):
solved at least one of the mysteries, the question of what Gerard did with
his surplus bankrupt stock. It wasevidently packed in trunks and shipped to distant
points to be forwarded by the vanwoman. Upon instructions from Girard himself.
The wires he had torn up weremerely confirmatory messages, sent so that he

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would have the necessary information before makinga getaway. Clever scheme, all right,
was Hell's mental comment. Now,the next point is to find some
town in the Southwest where a newstore has been opened within the past two
months. That night the telegraph officeat Mount Clemmons did more business than it

(24:03):
had had for the past year.Wires under the Government Frank went out to
every town on the Adjason, Topekaand Santa Fe, and to a number
of adjacent cities. In each casethe message was the same wire, name
of any new clothing store opened withinpast two months, also description of proprietor

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Urgent Preston U Spis. Fourteen chiefsof police replied within the next forty eight
hours, but of these only two, Leavenworth and fort Worth, contained descriptions
which tallied with that of Henry Girard. So to facilitate matters, Preston sent

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another wire, as proprietor mentioned inyesterday's wire, a wife or a woman
who keeps white mice as pets.Fort Worth replied facetiously that the owner of
the new store there was married,but that his wife had a cat,
which might account for the absence ofthe mice. Leavenworth, however, came

(25:18):
back with yes, missus, noble, wife of owner of outlet store,
has white mice for pets. Whynever mind reason, Preston replied, watch
noble and wife until I arrive leavingtoday. Ten minutes after reaching Leavenworth,

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Preston was ensconced in the office ofthe Chief of Police, outlining the reason
for his visit. I'm certain thatNoble is the man you want, said
the chief, when hal had finished. He came here some six weeks or
more ago and at once leased astore, which he opened a few days

(26:03):
later. The description fits him toa t, except for the fact that
he's evidently dispensed with the mustache,the von woman as posing as his wife,
and they've rented a house on theoutskirts of town. What do you
want me to do? Nab himright away? No, directed the operative.

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I'd rather attend to that myself,if you don't object. After trailing
them this far, I'd like togo through with it. You might have
some men handy, though, incase there's any fuss. Just as mister
and missus C. K. Noblewere sitting down to dinner. There was
a ring at their front door bell, and Noble went to see who it

(26:49):
was. I'd like to speak tomister H. Gordon Fowler, said Preston,
his hand resting carelessly in the sidepocket of his coat. No,
mister Fowler lives here, was thegrowling reply from the inside. Then mister

(27:10):
W. C. Evans or misterHenry Gerard will Do snapped the operative,
throwing his shoulder against the partly openeddoor. Noble or Fowler, as he
was afterward known, stepped aside ashal plunged through, and then slammed the
door behind him. Get him Anna, he called, throwing the safety bolt

(27:33):
into position. The next thing thatPreston knew a pair of arms, bare
and feminine but strong as iron,had seized him around the waist, and
he was in imminent danger of beingbested by a woman with a heave and
a wriggling twist. He broke thehold and turned just in time to see

(27:57):
Fowler snatch a revolt from a deskon the opposite side of the room and
raise it into position. Without aninstant's hesitation. He leaped to one side
dropped his hand into his coat pocketand fired. Evidently the bullet took effect,

(28:18):
for the man across the room droppedhis gun, spun clean around,
and then sank to the floor.As he did so. However, the
woman hurled a heavy vase directly atPreston's head, and the operative sank unconscious.
Well go on, I snapped whenQuinn paused, you sound like a

(28:41):
serial story to be continued in ournext What happened then, nothing beyond the
fact that three policemen broke in someten seconds after Hal fired, grabbed missus
Vaughan or whatever her name was,and kept her from beating Hal to death,

(29:03):
as she certainly would have done inanother minute. Fowler wasn't badly hurt.
In fact, both of them stoodtrial the next spring, Fowler drawing
six years, and Anne of Vaughanwon. Incidentally, they sent him back
to Leavenworth to do time, andas a great concession, allowed the woman

(29:26):
to take two of her white micewith her. I managed to get one
of the other four, and whenit died, had it stuffed as a
memento of a puzzling case. Wellsolved. It's a hobby of mine keeping
these relics that hatchet, for example. Remind me to tell you about it

(29:48):
some time. The mice were responsiblefor finding one man in fifty million,
which is something of a job initself, but the hatchet figured in an
even more exciting affair end of Chapterthirteen.