"It wa'n't pried loose," said the yellow negro. "Hit got kicked loose
f'om de hinside. I know dat much, annerways. I seen dat oc-cur. I seen
dat board bulge out an' bulge out an' bulge out twell hit bust out.
An' dey hain't no turbine come out, nuther. No, sah!"
Mr. Beech went away. The detective business was not his business. He
specialized in coal and not in crime. But in going he passed by Mrs.
Phillipetti's booth and spoke to her.
"It will be all right," he said reassuringly. "We are on the track."
"Oh, thank you!" said Mrs. Phillipetti, who had completed the
"apropriety" of her "ongsomble" by wrapping a green silk handkerchief
about her head.
"I hope to return the turban and the jewel sometime to-morrow," said
Mr. Beech, bluffing bravely.
But Philo Gubb did not heed the notices posted to call him to the
Executive Booth. The evening passed and he did not appear, and Mr.
Beech, on his way home, stopped at the police station. It was after
midnight, but Chief of Police Wittaker was still on duty. He never
slept during the Carnival.
Mr. Beech explained the loss of the turban and the Dragon's Eye, and
early the next morning the Chief himself took up the hunt. By three
o'clock in the afternoon he had discovered several things. He
discovered that the yellow man who had claimed to see the board pushed
out from the inside was the husband of one of the waffle cooks in Mrs.
Phillipetti's booth. He learned that the yellow man had been in jail.
He learned that for a few minutes the yellow negro had been alone
behind the waffle booth. The Chief thereupon arrested the yellow
negro.
As he led the negro from the grounds by the back way, in order to
cause as little commotion as possible, he brushed by a strange
creature dressed as a wizard, who was standing by the rear entrance,
droning: "Tell your fortune, ten cents! Tell your fortune, ten cents!"
The wizard was tall and thin and wore a long white beard, a sort of
Mother-Hubbard gown, and a pointed cap. As the Chief passed with his
prisoner the wizard turned his eyes on the two, and then droned on. It
was Philo Gubb, the paper-hanger detective, on the job!
Philo Gubb, having received his costume, had come to the Carnival
grounds the back way. He had wandered about the grounds, peeking and
peering, seeking malefactors unsuccessfully. He felt the whole weight
of the Carnival on his shoulders. When he suspected a youth he
followed him at a safe distance, stopping when he stopped, going on
when he went on. He was so intent on trailing and shadowing that he
did not even notice the placards calling him to the Executive Booth.
Every few minutes he had to stop and tell a fortune with the magic
tube. So far he had collected two dollars and sixty cents.
The Chief, with his prisoner walking quietly by his side,--to avoid
unpleasant commotion in an otherwise orderly crowd,--had just passed
the wizard when he heard voices that made him look back.
"There he is!" said one voice. "Kick him off the grounds!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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