Chicago (Ill.) -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories; Extortion -- Fiction; World War, 1914-1918 -- Veterans -- Fiction
He was not deceived by these eventless days. Surmising that the "Friends
of the Poor" were holding off some act of retaliation merely to lull him
into a sense of false security and thus take him off his guard,
Forrester maintained a constant watchfulness of everything about him.
This caution at times may have made him appear churlish; in such
instances as a refusal to accept assistance from passing motorists when
he had trouble with his car on the road.
Then, on Saturday, one week after the enigmatical happenings at the oak
tree, the case once more presented itself with weird and baffling
additions. Toward noon, Humphrey telephoned that he had important
information and would come out to "Woodmere" after business hours.
Forrester extended him an invitation to dinner, coupled with an
admonition against mentioning a word regarding the matter before his
mother and sister. So it was not until after dinner, when Forrester had
summoned Green and the three men had shut themselves in the library,
that Humphrey disclosed his startling information.
Forrester placed cigars on the library table, inviting the others to
help themselves, while he filled and lighted his pipe. "Now," he said,
"what is it?"
"The detectives have caught the Italians!" divulged Humphrey.
"Always them _Italians_," sneered Green. "Well, what then?"
"Yes," requested Forrester, "tell us the whole story—right from the
start."
"It begins with the photo I made last Saturday," began Humphrey. "I took
the negative and a print to the detective bureau as I promised, and
turned them over to Cahill and O’Connor. It was a wonder, too; take it
from me! At the moment the flash went off both the detectives and the
two Italians looked straight at the camera. O’Connor immediately spotted
one of the men as Dominick Campanelli, a suspect the police have taken
in half a dozen times but never could actually fasten anything on. That
picture of mine settled him! I showed the detective bureau this time
that it was worth while letting reporters on the inside of their cases."
"Leave out the interpolations," interrupted Forrester. "Green and I want
the facts that concern us."
"Oh, you gotta let them reporters blow off a little steam," declared
Green.
Humphrey glared at Green. "You detectives haven’t any extra steam to
blow off," he retorted. "Well, as I was about to say, Cahill and
O’Connor started out to hunt for those two men in the photo. They picked
up Campanelli out in Hammond on Thursday. He had a man with him named
Luigi Licansi, who turned out to be the man that drove their car. The
detectives kept this capture quiet until, on Friday, along in the
afternoon, they found the other man in the picture—Frank
Tanuzzio—hanging around the very garage where the car with the bullet
holes was discovered. Cahill considered that a conclusive piece of
evidence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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