On Secret Service: Detective-Mystery Stories Based on Real Cases Solved by Government AgentsTaft, William Nelson
General
On Secret Service: Detective-Mystery Stories Based on Real Cases Solved by Government Agents
Taft, William Nelson
Detective and mystery stories, American; Secret service -- United States -- Fiction; Short stories, American
"Buch and the big fellow had a row the last time over," was the
information Maxwell secured at the cost of a few drinks. "Something
about some money that Weimar is supposed to have owed him--fifteen
dollars or some such amount. I didn't hear about it until afterward, but
it appears to have been a pretty lively scrap while it lasted. Of
course, Buch didn't have a chance against the big fellow--he could
handle a bull. But the young Austrian threatened to tip his hand--said
he knew a lot of stuff that would be worth a good deal more money than
was coming to him, and all that sort of thing. But the ship docked the
next day and I haven't seen or heard of him since."
The idea of foul play at once leaped into Maxwell's mind, but
investigation of police records failed to disclose the discovery of
anybody answering to the description of George Buch and, as Captain
Kenney pointed out, it is a decidedly difficult matter to dispose of a
corpse in such a way as not to arouse at least the suspicions of the
police.
As a last resort, about the middle of September, Maxwell had a reward
posted on the bulletin board of every police station in New York and the
surrounding country for the "apprehension of George Buch, Austrian, age
about twenty-four. Height, five feet eight inches. Hair, blond.
Complexion, fair. Eyes, blue. Sandy mustache."
As Captain Kenney pointed out, though, the description would apply to
several thousand men of German parentage in the city, and to a good many
more who didn't have a drop of Teutonic blood in their veins.
"True enough," Maxwell was forced to admit, "but we can't afford to
overlook a bet--even if it is a thousand-to-one shot."
As luck would have it, the thousand-to-one shot won!
On September 25, 1917, Detective Gary returned to headquarters,
distinctly crestfallen. Weimar had given him the slip.
In company with another man, whom the detective did not know, the
Austrian had been walking up Sixth Avenue that afternoon when a machine
swung in from Thirty-sixth Street and the Austrian had leaped aboard
without waiting for it to come to a full stop.
"Of course, there wasn't a taxi in sight," said Gary, ruefully, "and
before I could convince the nearest chauffeur that my badge wasn't phony
they'd gone!"
"That's the first time in months," Gary replied. "He knows that he's
followed, all right, and he's cagy enough to keep in the open and
pretend to be aboveboard."
"Right," commented the Department of Justice operative, "and this move
would appear to indicate that something was doing. Better phone all your
stations to watch out for him, Cap."
But nothing more was seen or heard of Herr Weimar for five days.
Meanwhile events moved rapidly for Maxwell.
On September 26th, the day after the Austrian disappeared, one of the
policemen whose beat lay along Fourteenth Street, near Third Avenue,
asked to see the government detective.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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