June 27, 2023 • 25 mins
https://www.solgood.org - Check out our Streaming Service for our full collection of audiobooks, podcasts, short stories, & 10 hour sounds for sleep and relaxation at our website
Espionage adventures, Covert operations, Thrilling missions, International intrigue, Spy thriller, Government agents, Undercover work, Secret intelligence, Political espionage, Intriguing conspiracies, High-stakes espionage, Intelligence gathering, Hidden identities, Espionage secrets, Political thrillers, Spy network, Secret missions, Classified operations, Intrigue and suspense, Government secrets
Espionage adventures, Covert operations, Thrilling missions, International intrigue, Spy thriller, Government agents, Undercover work, Secret intelligence, Political espionage, Intriguing conspiracies, High-stakes espionage, Intelligence gathering, Hidden identities, Espionage secrets, Political thrillers, Spy network, Secret missions, Classified operations, Intrigue and suspense, Government secrets
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Chapter two, The Mint Mystery,Mister Drummond, Wire for mister Drummond,
Mister Drummond, please. It wasthe monotonous, oft repeated call of a
Western Union boy, according to myfriend Bill Quinn, formerly of the United
States Secret Service, that really wasresponsible for solving the mystery which surrounded the
(00:25):
disappearance of a hundred and thirty thousanddollars in gold from the Philadelphia Mint.
The boy himself didn't have a thingto do with the gold or the finding
of it, admitted Quinn, buthis persistence was responsible for locating Drummond of
the Secret Service, just as hewas about to start on a well earned
(00:46):
vacation in the Main Woods, UncleSam. Sleuths don't get too much time
off, you know, and amonth or so in a part of the
world where they don't know anything aboutinternational intrigues and don't care about counterfeiting is
a blessing not to be despised.That's the reason the boy had to be
(01:06):
persistent. When he was paging Drummond. The operative had a hunch that it
was a summons to another case,and he was dog tired. But the
boy kept singing out the name throughthe train and finally landed his man,
thus being indirectly responsible for the solutionof a mystery that might have remained unsolved
(01:26):
for weeks, and incidentally saved thegovernment nearly every cent of the one hundred
and thirty thousand dollars. When Drummondopened the telegram, continued Quinn, He
found that it was a summons toPhiladelphia signed by Hamlin, Assistant Secretary of
the Treasury. Preston needs you atonce extremely important. Read the wire,
(01:53):
and as Drummond was fully aware thatPreston was Director of the United States Mint,
it didn't take much deduction to figurethat something had gone wrong in the
big building on Spring Garden Street,where a large part of the country's money
is coined. But even the loreof the chase, something you read a
lot about in detective stories but findtoo seldom in the real hard work of
(02:16):
tracing criminals, did not offset Drummond'sdisappointment in having to defer his vacation.
Grumbling, he gathered his bags andcut across New York to the Pennsylvania station,
where he was fortunate enough to beable to make a train on the
point of leaving for Philadelphia. Atthe Mint, he found Director Preston and
(02:39):
Superintendent Bosbyshell awaiting him. Mister Hamlinwired that he had instructed you to come
up at once, said the director, But we had hardly hoped that you
could make it so soon wire reachedme on board a train that would have
pulled out of Grand Central Station inanother three man, growled Drummond. I
(03:01):
was on my way to Maine toforget all about work for a month.
But and his face broke into asmile, since they did find me,
what's the trouble? Trouble enough,replied the director. Some hundred and thirty
thousand dollars in gold is missing fromthe mint. What Even Drummond was shaken
(03:25):
out of his professional calm not tomention his grouch. Robbery of the United
States Treasury or one of the governmentmints was a favorite dream with criminals,
But save for the memorable occasion whena gang was found trying to tunnel under
Fifteenth Street in Washington, there hadbeen no time when the scheme was more
(03:49):
than visionary. Are you certain?Isn't there any chance for a mistake?
The questions were a perfunctory rather thanhopeful. Unfortunately, not the least continued
Preston, somebody is made away witha hundred and thirty thousand dollars worth of
(04:09):
the government's money. Seven hundred poundsof gold is missing, and there isn't
a trace to show how or whereit went. The vault doors haven't been
tampered with, the combination of thegrill inside the vault is intact. Everything
apparently is as it should be.But fifty bars of gold are missing,
(04:33):
and each bar, mused Drummond,weighs fourteen pounds cut in the Superintendent Drummond
looked at him in surprise. Ibeg your pardon, said Preston. This
is mister Bosbyshell, superintendent of theMint. This thing has gotten on my
(04:56):
nerves so that I didn't have thecommon decency to introduce you. Mister Bosbyshell
was with me when we discovered thatthe gold was missing. When was that
yesterday afternoon, replied the Director.Every now and then, at irregular intervals,
we weigh all the gold in themint to make sure that everything is
(05:19):
as it should be. Nothing wrongwas discovered until we reached Vault six.
But there fifty bars were missing.There wasn't any chance of error. The
records showed precisely how much should havebeen there, and the scale showed how
much there was to the fraction ofan ounce. But even if we had
(05:42):
only counted the bars instead of weighingeach one separately, the theft would have
been instantly discovered, for the vaultcontains exactly fifty bars less than it should
have. It was then that Iwired Washington and asked for assistance from the
Secret Service, thus spoiling my vacation, muttered Drummond. How many men know
(06:06):
the combination to the vault door?Only two, replied, the Superintendent Cochrane,
who is the official weyer, andmyself. Cochrane is above suspicion.
He's been here for the past thirtyyears and there hasn't been a single complaint
against him in all that time.Drummond looked as if he would like to
(06:30):
ask Preston if the same could besaid for the Superintendent, but he contented
himself with listening as Bosbyshell continued.But even if Cochrane or I MI,
yes, I'm just as much tobe suspected as he could have managed to
open the vault door unseen, wecould not have gotten inside the iron grill
which guards the gold in the interiorof the vault that is always kept locked
(06:58):
with a combination known to two othermen. Only there is too much gold
in each one of these vaults totake any chance with which is the reason
for this double protection. Two men, Cochrane and I, handle the combination
to the vault door and open itwhenever necessary. Two others, Jamison and
(07:19):
Struble, are the only ones thatknow how to open the grilled door.
One of them has to be presentwhenever the bars are put in or taken
away, for the men who canget inside the vault cannot enter the grill,
and the men who can manipulate thegrilled door can't get into the vault.
(07:41):
It certainly sounds like a burglar proofcombination, commented Drummond. Is there
any possibility for conspiracy between and hehesitated for the fraction of a second between
Cochrane and either of the men whocan open the grilled door. Apparently not
the least in the world, repliedPreston. So far as we know,
(08:05):
they are all as honest as theday. But the fact remains. Drummond
interrupted that the gold is missing exactly, but the grille door was sealed with
the official government stamp when we enteredthe vault yesterday. That stamp is applied
only in the presence of both menwho know the combination. So the conspiracy,
(08:31):
if there be any, must haveincluded Cochrane, Struble and Jamieson instead
of being a two man job.How much gold did you say was missing?
Inquired the Treasury operative, taking anothertack. Seven hundred pounds fifty bars
of fourteen pounds each, answered Bosbichhall. That's another problem that defies explanation.
(09:00):
How could one man carry away allthat gold without being seen. He'd need
a dray to cart it off.And we're very careful about what goes out
of the mint. There's a guardat the front door all the time,
and no one is allowed to leavewith a package of any kind until it
has been examined and passed. Agrunt was Drummond's only comment, and those
(09:24):
who knew the Secret Service man bestwould have interpreted the sound to mean studious
digestion of facts, rather than admissionof even temporary defeat. It was one
of the government detective's pet theories thatevery crime, no matter how puzzling,
could be solved by application of commonsense principles and the rules of logic.
(09:48):
The criminal with brains, he wasfond of saying, will deliberately try to
throw you off the scent. Thenyou've got to take your time and separate
the wheat from the shaft. Thefaults leads from the true. But the
man who commits a crime on thespur of the moment, or who flatters
(10:09):
himself that he hasn't left a singleclue behind, is the one who's easy
to catch. The cleverest cook inthe world can't enter a room without leaving
his visiting card in some way orother. It's up to you to find
that card and read the name onit. And common sense is the best
reading glass. Requesting that his missionbe kept secret, Drummond said that he
(10:35):
would like to examine vault number six. Let Cochrane open the vault for me,
and then have Jamison and Struble openthe grill. He directed, unless
mister Bosby shall open the vault door, Preston reminded him there's no one but
Cochrane who could do it. Itwon't be necessary, however, to have
(10:58):
either of the others open the grill. The door was taken from its hinges
this morning in order the better toexamine the place, and it hasn't yet
been replaced. All right, agreedDrummond. Let's have Cochrane work the outer
combination, then I'll have a lookat the other two. Later, accompanied
(11:20):
by the Director and the Superintendent,Drummond made his way to the basement,
where they were joined by the officialWeer, a man well over fifty,
who was introduced by Preston to misterDrummond, a visitor who is desirous of
seeing the vaults. I understand thatyou are the only man who can open
(11:41):
them, said the detective. Supposewe look into this one. As he
stopped, as if by accident,before vault number six. Cochrane, without
a word, bent forward and commencedto twirl the combination a few spins to
the right, a few to theleft, back to the right, to
the left once more, and hepulled at the heavy door expectantly, but
(12:07):
it failed to budge. Again,he bent over the combination, spinning it
rapidly. Still, the door refusedto open. I'm afraid I'll have to
ask you to help me with this, Superintendent Cochrane said. Finally, it
doesn't seem to work somehow, Butunder Bosby Shell's manipulation, the door swung
(12:33):
back almost instantly. Nothing wrong withthe combination, commented Preston. Drummond smiled.
Has the combination been changed recently,he asked, not for the past
month. Bosby Shehell replied. Weusually switch all of them six times a
(12:54):
year, just as a general precaution, But this has been the same for
the past few weeks, ever sincethe fifteenth of last month, to be
precise. Inside the vault, Drummondfound that, as Preston had stated,
the door to the grill had beentaken from its hinges to facilitate the work
(13:15):
of the men who had weighed thegold, and had not been replaced.
Where are the gold bars, askedthe detective. The place looks like it
had been well looted. They wereall taken out this morning to be carefully
weighed, was Preston's reply. I'dlike to see some of them stacked up
(13:37):
there along the side of the grill. If it isn't too much trouble,
surely, said Bosbyshell, I'll havethe men bring them in at once.
As soon as the superintendent had leftthe room, Drummond requested that the door
of the grill be placed in itsusual position, and Cochrane set it up
(13:58):
level with the floor, leaning againstthe supports at the side. Is that
the way it always stays, inquiredthe secret serviceman, No, sir,
but it's pretty heavy to handle,and I thought you just wanted to get
a general idea of things. I'dlike to see it in place. If
(14:20):
you don't mind here, I'll helpyou with it. But we'd better slip
our coats off, for it lookslike a man sized job, and he
removed his coat as he spoke.After Cochrane had followed his example, the
two of them hung the heavy doorfrom its hinges and stepped back to get
(14:41):
the effect. But Drummond's eyes werefixed not upon the entrance to the grille,
but on the middle of Cochrane's back, and when the opportunity offered an
instant later, he shifted his gazeto the waist of the elder man's trousers.
Thing that he saw there caused theshadow of a smile to flit across
(15:03):
his face. Thanks, he said, that will do nicely, and he
made a quick gesture to Preston thathe would like to have Cochrane leave the
vault very much obliged, mister Cochrane, said the director. We won't bother
you any more. You might askthose men to hurry in with the bars,
(15:24):
if you will. And the wayer, pausing only to secure his coat,
left the vault. Why all thestage setting, inquired Preston, you
don't suspect I don't suspect a thing, Drummond smiled, searching for his own
coat, beyond the fact that thesolution to the mystery is so simple as
(15:48):
to be almost absurd. By theway, have you noticed those scratches on
the bars of the grille about fourfeet from the floor. No, I
hadn't, admitted the director. Butwhat of them? These vaults aren't new,
you know, and I dare sayyou'd find similar marks on the grill
(16:10):
bars in any of the others.I hope not, Drummond replied grimly,
for that would almost certain me ina shortage of golden other sections of the
mint. Incidentally, has all therest of the gold been weighed, every
ounce of it? Nothing missing outsideof the seven hundred pounds from this vault.
(16:36):
Not a particle. Good, thenI'll be willing to lay a small
wager that you can't find the duplicatesof these scratches anywhere else in the mint,
and Drummond smiled at the director's perplexity. When the men arrived with a
truck loaded with gold bars, theystacked them at the superintendent's direction, along
(17:00):
the side of the grill nearest thevault entrance. Is that the way they
are usually arranged, inquired Drummond.Yes. The grill bars are of tempered
steel, and the openings between themare too small to permit anyone to put
his hand through. Therefore, aswe are somewhat pressed for space, we
(17:22):
stack them up right along the outerwall of the grill and then work back.
It saves time and labor in bringingthem in. Is this the way
the door of the grill ordinarily hangs? Bosby Shall inspected it a moment before
he replied yes, He said,it appears to be all right. It
(17:45):
was purposely made to swing clear ofthe floor and the ceiling so that it
might not become jammed. The combinationand the use of the seal prevents its
being opened by anyone who has nobusiness in the grill. And the seal
was intact when you came in yesterdayafternoon. It was thanks, said Drummond,
(18:10):
that was all I wanted to know, and he made his way upstairs
with a smile which seemed to saythat his vacation in the main Woods had
not been indefinitely postponed. Once backin the Director's office, the government operative
asked permission to use the telephone,and, calling the Philadelphia office of the
(18:30):
Secret Service, requested that the threeagents be assigned to meet him downtown as
soon as possible. Have you arecord of the home address of the people
employed in the mint, Drummond inquiredof the director as he hung up the
receiver. Surely, said Preston,producing a typewritten list from the drawer of
(18:52):
his desk. I'll borrow this fora while if I may. I'll probably
be back before three o'clock and bringsome news with me too, And the
operative was out of the room beforePreston could frame a single question. As
a matter of fact, the clockin the director's office pointed to two thirty
(19:14):
when Drummond returned, accompanied by thethree men who had been assigned to assist
him. Have you discovered anything,Preston demanded. Let's have Cochrane up here
first. Drummond smiled, I can'tbe positive until I've talked to him.
You might have the superintendent in too, he'll be interested in developments. I
(19:37):
think Bosby Shell was the first toarrive, and, at Drummond's request,
took up a position on the farside of the room. As soon as
he had entered, two of theother secret servicemen ranged themselves on the other
side of the doorway, and themoment Cochrane came in closed the door behind
(20:00):
him. Cochrane said, Drummond,what did you do with the seven hundred
pounds of gold that you took fromvault number six during the past few weeks?
What? What? Stammered the weier. There's no use bluffing, continued
the detective. We've got the goodson you. The only thing missing is
(20:23):
the gold itself, and the sooneryou turn it over, the more lenient
the government will be with you.I know how you got the bars out
of the grill. A piece ofbent wire was sufficient to dislodge them from
the top of the pile nearest thegrill bars, and it was easy to
slip them under the door. Nowonder the seal was never tampered with.
(20:48):
It wasn't necessary for you to goinside the grill at all. But more
than that, I know how youcarried the bars one at a time out
of the mint. It took thesethree men less than an hour this afternoon
to find the tailor who fixed thefalse pocket in the front of your trousers.
The next time you try a jobof this kind, you'd better attend
(21:11):
to all these details yourself. Andit needed only one look at your suspenders
this morning to see that they werea good deal wider and heavier than necessary.
That long coat you were in thehabit of wearing is just the thing
to cover up any suspicious bulge inyour garments, and the guard at the
door, knowing you, would neverthink of telling you to stop unless you
(21:36):
carried a package or something else contraryto orders. The people in your neighborhood
say that they've seen queer bluish lightsin the basement of your house on Woodland
Avenue. So I suspect you've beenmelting that gold up and hiding it somewhere,
ready for a quick getaway. Yes, Cochrane, We've got the goods
(22:00):
on you. And if you wantto save half of a twenty years sentence,
which at your age means life,come across with the information where is
the gold in the old sewer pipe? Faltered the wear who appeared to have
aged ten years while Drummond was speakingIn the old sewer pipe that leads from
(22:22):
my basement, good, exclaimed Drummond. I think mister Preston will use his
influence with the court to see thatyour sentence isn't any heavier than necessary.
It's worth that much to guard themint against future losses of the same kind,
isn't it, mister Director, Itsurely is, replied Preston. But
(22:47):
how in the name of Heaven didyou get the answer so quickly? Drummond
delayed his answer until Cochrane, accompaniedby the three secret servicemen, had left
the room. Then nothing but commonsense, he said. You remember those
scratches I called your attention to theones on the side of the grill bars.
(23:11):
They were a clear indication of theway in which the gold had been
taken from the grill, knocked downfrom the top of the pile with a
piece of wire and pulled under thedoor of the grill. That eliminated Jamison
and Struble immediately. They needn't havegone to that trouble. Even if it
had been possible for them to getinto the vault in the first place.
(23:34):
But I had my suspicions of Cockmanwhen he was unable to open the vault
door. That pointed to nervousness,and nervousness indicated a guilty conscience. I
made the hanging of the grill dooran excuse to get him to shed his
coat, though I did want tosee whether the door came all the way
(23:55):
down to the floor, and Inoted that his suspenders were very broad and
his trousers abnormally wide around the waist. He didn't want to take any chances
with that extra fourteen pounds of gold. You know, it would never do
to drop it in the street.The rest is merely corroborative. I found
(24:18):
that bluish lights had been observed inthe basement of Cochrane's house, and one
of my men located the tailor whohad enlarged his trousers. That's really all
there was to it with that.Drummond started to the door, only to
be stopped by Director Preston's inquiry asto where he was going on my vacation,
(24:41):
which you interrupted this morning, repliedthe secret serviceman. It's a good
thing I did. Preston called afterhim. If Cochrane had really gotten away
with that gold, we might neverhave caught him, which, as Bill
Quinn said when he finished his narrative, is the reason I claim that the
(25:03):
telegraph boy who persisted in paging Drummondis the one who was really responsible for
the saving of some hundred and thirtythousand dollars that belonged to Uncle Sam.
But surely, I said that casewas an exception in rapidity of action.
I mean, don't government investigations usuallytake a long time, frequently, admitted
(25:29):
Quinn. They drag on and onfor months, sometimes years. But it
seldom that Uncle Sam fails to landhis man, even though the trail leads
into the realms of royalty, asin the Iperanga case that happened before the
World War opened. But it gavethe State Department a mighty good line on
(25:51):
what to expect from Germany. Endof Chapter two.
Chapter two, The Mint Mystery,Mister Drummond, Wire for mister Drummond,
Mister Drummond, please. It wasthe monotonous, oft repeated call of a
Western Union boy, according to myfriend Bill Quinn, formerly of the United
States Secret Service, that really wasresponsible for solving the mystery which surrounded the
(00:25):
disappearance of a hundred and thirty thousanddollars in gold from the Philadelphia Mint.
The boy himself didn't have a thingto do with the gold or the finding
of it, admitted Quinn, buthis persistence was responsible for locating Drummond of
the Secret Service, just as hewas about to start on a well earned
(00:46):
vacation in the Main Woods, UncleSam. Sleuths don't get too much time
off, you know, and amonth or so in a part of the
world where they don't know anything aboutinternational intrigues and don't care about counterfeiting is
a blessing not to be despised.That's the reason the boy had to be
(01:06):
persistent. When he was paging Drummond. The operative had a hunch that it
was a summons to another case,and he was dog tired. But the
boy kept singing out the name throughthe train and finally landed his man,
thus being indirectly responsible for the solutionof a mystery that might have remained unsolved
(01:26):
for weeks, and incidentally saved thegovernment nearly every cent of the one hundred
and thirty thousand dollars. When Drummondopened the telegram, continued Quinn, He
found that it was a summons toPhiladelphia signed by Hamlin, Assistant Secretary of
the Treasury. Preston needs you atonce extremely important. Read the wire,
(01:53):
and as Drummond was fully aware thatPreston was Director of the United States Mint,
it didn't take much deduction to figurethat something had gone wrong in the
big building on Spring Garden Street,where a large part of the country's money
is coined. But even the loreof the chase, something you read a
lot about in detective stories but findtoo seldom in the real hard work of
(02:16):
tracing criminals, did not offset Drummond'sdisappointment in having to defer his vacation.
Grumbling, he gathered his bags andcut across New York to the Pennsylvania station,
where he was fortunate enough to beable to make a train on the
point of leaving for Philadelphia. Atthe Mint, he found Director Preston and
(02:39):
Superintendent Bosbyshell awaiting him. Mister Hamlinwired that he had instructed you to come
up at once, said the director, But we had hardly hoped that you
could make it so soon wire reachedme on board a train that would have
pulled out of Grand Central Station inanother three man, growled Drummond. I
(03:01):
was on my way to Maine toforget all about work for a month.
But and his face broke into asmile, since they did find me,
what's the trouble? Trouble enough,replied the director. Some hundred and thirty
thousand dollars in gold is missing fromthe mint. What Even Drummond was shaken
(03:25):
out of his professional calm not tomention his grouch. Robbery of the United
States Treasury or one of the governmentmints was a favorite dream with criminals,
But save for the memorable occasion whena gang was found trying to tunnel under
Fifteenth Street in Washington, there hadbeen no time when the scheme was more
(03:49):
than visionary. Are you certain?Isn't there any chance for a mistake?
The questions were a perfunctory rather thanhopeful. Unfortunately, not the least continued
Preston, somebody is made away witha hundred and thirty thousand dollars worth of
(04:09):
the government's money. Seven hundred poundsof gold is missing, and there isn't
a trace to show how or whereit went. The vault doors haven't been
tampered with, the combination of thegrill inside the vault is intact. Everything
apparently is as it should be.But fifty bars of gold are missing,
(04:33):
and each bar, mused Drummond,weighs fourteen pounds cut in the Superintendent Drummond
looked at him in surprise. Ibeg your pardon, said Preston. This
is mister Bosbyshell, superintendent of theMint. This thing has gotten on my
(04:56):
nerves so that I didn't have thecommon decency to introduce you. Mister Bosbyshell
was with me when we discovered thatthe gold was missing. When was that
yesterday afternoon, replied the Director.Every now and then, at irregular intervals,
we weigh all the gold in themint to make sure that everything is
(05:19):
as it should be. Nothing wrongwas discovered until we reached Vault six.
But there fifty bars were missing.There wasn't any chance of error. The
records showed precisely how much should havebeen there, and the scale showed how
much there was to the fraction ofan ounce. But even if we had
(05:42):
only counted the bars instead of weighingeach one separately, the theft would have
been instantly discovered, for the vaultcontains exactly fifty bars less than it should
have. It was then that Iwired Washington and asked for assistance from the
Secret Service, thus spoiling my vacation, muttered Drummond. How many men know
(06:06):
the combination to the vault door?Only two, replied, the Superintendent Cochrane,
who is the official weyer, andmyself. Cochrane is above suspicion.
He's been here for the past thirtyyears and there hasn't been a single complaint
against him in all that time.Drummond looked as if he would like to
(06:30):
ask Preston if the same could besaid for the Superintendent, but he contented
himself with listening as Bosbyshell continued.But even if Cochrane or I MI,
yes, I'm just as much tobe suspected as he could have managed to
open the vault door unseen, wecould not have gotten inside the iron grill
which guards the gold in the interiorof the vault that is always kept locked
(06:58):
with a combination known to two othermen. Only there is too much gold
in each one of these vaults totake any chance with which is the reason
for this double protection. Two men, Cochrane and I, handle the combination
to the vault door and open itwhenever necessary. Two others, Jamison and
(07:19):
Struble, are the only ones thatknow how to open the grilled door.
One of them has to be presentwhenever the bars are put in or taken
away, for the men who canget inside the vault cannot enter the grill,
and the men who can manipulate thegrilled door can't get into the vault.
(07:41):
It certainly sounds like a burglar proofcombination, commented Drummond. Is there
any possibility for conspiracy between and hehesitated for the fraction of a second between
Cochrane and either of the men whocan open the grilled door. Apparently not
the least in the world, repliedPreston. So far as we know,
(08:05):
they are all as honest as theday. But the fact remains. Drummond
interrupted that the gold is missing exactly, but the grille door was sealed with
the official government stamp when we enteredthe vault yesterday. That stamp is applied
only in the presence of both menwho know the combination. So the conspiracy,
(08:31):
if there be any, must haveincluded Cochrane, Struble and Jamieson instead
of being a two man job.How much gold did you say was missing?
Inquired the Treasury operative, taking anothertack. Seven hundred pounds fifty bars
of fourteen pounds each, answered Bosbichhall. That's another problem that defies explanation.
(09:00):
How could one man carry away allthat gold without being seen. He'd need
a dray to cart it off.And we're very careful about what goes out
of the mint. There's a guardat the front door all the time,
and no one is allowed to leavewith a package of any kind until it
has been examined and passed. Agrunt was Drummond's only comment, and those
(09:24):
who knew the Secret Service man bestwould have interpreted the sound to mean studious
digestion of facts, rather than admissionof even temporary defeat. It was one
of the government detective's pet theories thatevery crime, no matter how puzzling,
could be solved by application of commonsense principles and the rules of logic.
(09:48):
The criminal with brains, he wasfond of saying, will deliberately try to
throw you off the scent. Thenyou've got to take your time and separate
the wheat from the shaft. Thefaults leads from the true. But the
man who commits a crime on thespur of the moment, or who flatters
(10:09):
himself that he hasn't left a singleclue behind, is the one who's easy
to catch. The cleverest cook inthe world can't enter a room without leaving
his visiting card in some way orother. It's up to you to find
that card and read the name onit. And common sense is the best
reading glass. Requesting that his missionbe kept secret, Drummond said that he
(10:35):
would like to examine vault number six. Let Cochrane open the vault for me,
and then have Jamison and Struble openthe grill. He directed, unless
mister Bosby shall open the vault door, Preston reminded him there's no one but
Cochrane who could do it. Itwon't be necessary, however, to have
(10:58):
either of the others open the grill. The door was taken from its hinges
this morning in order the better toexamine the place, and it hasn't yet
been replaced. All right, agreedDrummond. Let's have Cochrane work the outer
combination, then I'll have a lookat the other two. Later, accompanied
(11:20):
by the Director and the Superintendent,Drummond made his way to the basement,
where they were joined by the officialWeer, a man well over fifty,
who was introduced by Preston to misterDrummond, a visitor who is desirous of
seeing the vaults. I understand thatyou are the only man who can open
(11:41):
them, said the detective. Supposewe look into this one. As he
stopped, as if by accident,before vault number six. Cochrane, without
a word, bent forward and commencedto twirl the combination a few spins to
the right, a few to theleft, back to the right, to
the left once more, and hepulled at the heavy door expectantly, but
(12:07):
it failed to budge. Again,he bent over the combination, spinning it
rapidly. Still, the door refusedto open. I'm afraid I'll have to
ask you to help me with this, Superintendent Cochrane said. Finally, it
doesn't seem to work somehow, Butunder Bosby Shell's manipulation, the door swung
(12:33):
back almost instantly. Nothing wrong withthe combination, commented Preston. Drummond smiled.
Has the combination been changed recently,he asked, not for the past
month. Bosby Shehell replied. Weusually switch all of them six times a
(12:54):
year, just as a general precaution, But this has been the same for
the past few weeks, ever sincethe fifteenth of last month, to be
precise. Inside the vault, Drummondfound that, as Preston had stated,
the door to the grill had beentaken from its hinges to facilitate the work
(13:15):
of the men who had weighed thegold, and had not been replaced.
Where are the gold bars, askedthe detective. The place looks like it
had been well looted. They wereall taken out this morning to be carefully
weighed, was Preston's reply. I'dlike to see some of them stacked up
(13:37):
there along the side of the grill. If it isn't too much trouble,
surely, said Bosbyshell, I'll havethe men bring them in at once.
As soon as the superintendent had leftthe room, Drummond requested that the door
of the grill be placed in itsusual position, and Cochrane set it up
(13:58):
level with the floor, leaning againstthe supports at the side. Is that
the way it always stays, inquiredthe secret serviceman, No, sir,
but it's pretty heavy to handle,and I thought you just wanted to get
a general idea of things. I'dlike to see it in place. If
(14:20):
you don't mind here, I'll helpyou with it. But we'd better slip
our coats off, for it lookslike a man sized job, and he
removed his coat as he spoke.After Cochrane had followed his example, the
two of them hung the heavy doorfrom its hinges and stepped back to get
(14:41):
the effect. But Drummond's eyes werefixed not upon the entrance to the grille,
but on the middle of Cochrane's back, and when the opportunity offered an
instant later, he shifted his gazeto the waist of the elder man's trousers.
Thing that he saw there caused theshadow of a smile to flit across
(15:03):
his face. Thanks, he said, that will do nicely, and he
made a quick gesture to Preston thathe would like to have Cochrane leave the
vault very much obliged, mister Cochrane, said the director. We won't bother
you any more. You might askthose men to hurry in with the bars,
(15:24):
if you will. And the wayer, pausing only to secure his coat,
left the vault. Why all thestage setting, inquired Preston, you
don't suspect I don't suspect a thing, Drummond smiled, searching for his own
coat, beyond the fact that thesolution to the mystery is so simple as
(15:48):
to be almost absurd. By theway, have you noticed those scratches on
the bars of the grille about fourfeet from the floor. No, I
hadn't, admitted the director. Butwhat of them? These vaults aren't new,
you know, and I dare sayyou'd find similar marks on the grill
(16:10):
bars in any of the others.I hope not, Drummond replied grimly,
for that would almost certain me ina shortage of golden other sections of the
mint. Incidentally, has all therest of the gold been weighed, every
ounce of it? Nothing missing outsideof the seven hundred pounds from this vault.
(16:36):
Not a particle. Good, thenI'll be willing to lay a small
wager that you can't find the duplicatesof these scratches anywhere else in the mint,
and Drummond smiled at the director's perplexity. When the men arrived with a
truck loaded with gold bars, theystacked them at the superintendent's direction, along
(17:00):
the side of the grill nearest thevault entrance. Is that the way they
are usually arranged, inquired Drummond.Yes. The grill bars are of tempered
steel, and the openings between themare too small to permit anyone to put
his hand through. Therefore, aswe are somewhat pressed for space, we
(17:22):
stack them up right along the outerwall of the grill and then work back.
It saves time and labor in bringingthem in. Is this the way
the door of the grill ordinarily hangs? Bosby Shall inspected it a moment before
he replied yes, He said,it appears to be all right. It
(17:45):
was purposely made to swing clear ofthe floor and the ceiling so that it
might not become jammed. The combinationand the use of the seal prevents its
being opened by anyone who has nobusiness in the grill. And the seal
was intact when you came in yesterdayafternoon. It was thanks, said Drummond,
(18:10):
that was all I wanted to know, and he made his way upstairs
with a smile which seemed to saythat his vacation in the main Woods had
not been indefinitely postponed. Once backin the Director's office, the government operative
asked permission to use the telephone,and, calling the Philadelphia office of the
(18:30):
Secret Service, requested that the threeagents be assigned to meet him downtown as
soon as possible. Have you arecord of the home address of the people
employed in the mint, Drummond inquiredof the director as he hung up the
receiver. Surely, said Preston,producing a typewritten list from the drawer of
(18:52):
his desk. I'll borrow this fora while if I may. I'll probably
be back before three o'clock and bringsome news with me too, And the
operative was out of the room beforePreston could frame a single question. As
a matter of fact, the clockin the director's office pointed to two thirty
(19:14):
when Drummond returned, accompanied by thethree men who had been assigned to assist
him. Have you discovered anything,Preston demanded. Let's have Cochrane up here
first. Drummond smiled, I can'tbe positive until I've talked to him.
You might have the superintendent in too, he'll be interested in developments. I
(19:37):
think Bosby Shell was the first toarrive, and, at Drummond's request,
took up a position on the farside of the room. As soon as
he had entered, two of theother secret servicemen ranged themselves on the other
side of the doorway, and themoment Cochrane came in closed the door behind
(20:00):
him. Cochrane said, Drummond,what did you do with the seven hundred
pounds of gold that you took fromvault number six during the past few weeks?
What? What? Stammered the weier. There's no use bluffing, continued
the detective. We've got the goodson you. The only thing missing is
(20:23):
the gold itself, and the sooneryou turn it over, the more lenient
the government will be with you.I know how you got the bars out
of the grill. A piece ofbent wire was sufficient to dislodge them from
the top of the pile nearest thegrill bars, and it was easy to
slip them under the door. Nowonder the seal was never tampered with.
(20:48):
It wasn't necessary for you to goinside the grill at all. But more
than that, I know how youcarried the bars one at a time out
of the mint. It took thesethree men less than an hour this afternoon
to find the tailor who fixed thefalse pocket in the front of your trousers.
The next time you try a jobof this kind, you'd better attend
(21:11):
to all these details yourself. Andit needed only one look at your suspenders
this morning to see that they werea good deal wider and heavier than necessary.
That long coat you were in thehabit of wearing is just the thing
to cover up any suspicious bulge inyour garments, and the guard at the
door, knowing you, would neverthink of telling you to stop unless you
(21:36):
carried a package or something else contraryto orders. The people in your neighborhood
say that they've seen queer bluish lightsin the basement of your house on Woodland
Avenue. So I suspect you've beenmelting that gold up and hiding it somewhere,
ready for a quick getaway. Yes, Cochrane, We've got the goods
(22:00):
on you. And if you wantto save half of a twenty years sentence,
which at your age means life,come across with the information where is
the gold in the old sewer pipe? Faltered the wear who appeared to have
aged ten years while Drummond was speakingIn the old sewer pipe that leads from
(22:22):
my basement, good, exclaimed Drummond. I think mister Preston will use his
influence with the court to see thatyour sentence isn't any heavier than necessary.
It's worth that much to guard themint against future losses of the same kind,
isn't it, mister Director, Itsurely is, replied Preston. But
(22:47):
how in the name of Heaven didyou get the answer so quickly? Drummond
delayed his answer until Cochrane, accompaniedby the three secret servicemen, had left
the room. Then nothing but commonsense, he said. You remember those
scratches I called your attention to theones on the side of the grill bars.
(23:11):
They were a clear indication of theway in which the gold had been
taken from the grill, knocked downfrom the top of the pile with a
piece of wire and pulled under thedoor of the grill. That eliminated Jamison
and Struble immediately. They needn't havegone to that trouble. Even if it
had been possible for them to getinto the vault in the first place.
(23:34):
But I had my suspicions of Cockmanwhen he was unable to open the vault
door. That pointed to nervousness,and nervousness indicated a guilty conscience. I
made the hanging of the grill dooran excuse to get him to shed his
coat, though I did want tosee whether the door came all the way
(23:55):
down to the floor, and Inoted that his suspenders were very broad and
his trousers abnormally wide around the waist. He didn't want to take any chances
with that extra fourteen pounds of gold. You know, it would never do
to drop it in the street.The rest is merely corroborative. I found
(24:18):
that bluish lights had been observed inthe basement of Cochrane's house, and one
of my men located the tailor whohad enlarged his trousers. That's really all
there was to it with that.Drummond started to the door, only to
be stopped by Director Preston's inquiry asto where he was going on my vacation,
(24:41):
which you interrupted this morning, repliedthe secret serviceman. It's a good
thing I did. Preston called afterhim. If Cochrane had really gotten away
with that gold, we might neverhave caught him, which, as Bill
Quinn said when he finished his narrative, is the reason I claim that the
(25:03):
telegraph boy who persisted in paging Drummondis the one who was really responsible for
the saving of some hundred and thirtythousand dollars that belonged to Uncle Sam.
But surely, I said that casewas an exception in rapidity of action.
I mean, don't government investigations usuallytake a long time, frequently, admitted
(25:29):
Quinn. They drag on and onfor months, sometimes years. But it
seldom that Uncle Sam fails to landhis man, even though the trail leads
into the realms of royalty, asin the Iperanga case that happened before the
World War opened. But it gavethe State Department a mighty good line on
(25:51):
what to expect from Germany. Endof Chapter two.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!