The Barrel MysteryFlynn, William J. (William James)
General
The Barrel Mystery
Flynn, William J. (William James)
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
"Lupo explained to Calichio that Cecala was on the road about New
York, Brooklyn and Hoboken, selling the two-dollar notes, but that as
soon as he finished up this work he would return to the stone house
and oversee the work there.
"Calichio prepared the press, fixed the inks, and printed the first
proofs for the green side of the five-dollar notes. These were
pronounced very good by Lupo and Uncle Vincent and they ordered that
fifteen or twenty thousand of them be printed. Whatever paper was left
was to be used for the two-dollar notes, which were very good and
easily disposed of.
"On the night of the 29th, or 30th of March, 1909, Lupo left in
company with Uncle Vincent and Cina. Before leaving, however,
instructions were given to Bernardo, Giglio and Sylvester to count the
notes printed daily so that none could be unaccounted for and sold
into circulation. The fear that cheating might be practiced was
evidently in Lupo's mind.
"We had been working about a week on the green side of the five-dollar
notes when on April 5th, or 6th, Cina came to the stone house and told
us to suspend the work and start in on the two-dollar notes, because
there was a large demand for them from Boston, Buffalo and Chicago,
where customers were anxiously awaiting a new supply. Calichio
immediately got the press ready to print another ten thousand of the
two-dollar notes.
"It was at this time that I decided not to continue the work and left
the press because I was not spoken to but ignored entirely. Even
Sylvester and Giglio called me by an obscene name and referred to me
in the most distasteful language, horrible to hear because of the
profanity. I told Cina I wanted him to write to Cecala and tell him to
send me sufficient money for my fare to New York. At this Cina
answered in the Sicilian dialect:
"'You are waiting for me to blow your brains out. Now that we are at
the point where we can earn some money, you get sassy. Here you are
dealing with gentlemen; otherwise, by this time you would be dead. Go
ahead and work. No more of this fussing.'
"Then turning to Sylvester and Giglio, Cina continued: '(Piciotti)
Boys, watch this Calabrian, and if he don't want to work, shoot him
and make a hole for him in the farm.'
"After hearing this I felt like a whipped dog and kept my mouth
closed. I went over to the press and started in to work. Calichio came
over to me and said:
"'Don Antonio, look out. Don't act this way with these people, because
they are all of the (Mala-vita) Mafia and will do you harm in an
instant. As long as you are among them you must obey orders, as I do,
using prudence.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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