The Black Mask — page 11: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Man Who Was Seven mee ; “T’ve just come from an interview with old man Snedeker—president of the Totem, you know, He sent for me this morning, swore me to secrecy by every oath a banker knows and told me all about it. Seems Stein, the Pink- ertons, and the secret service men have been working at the case for a week without finding the smell of a smell. Snedeker said he was disgusted with the whole outfit, had heard of the work I did in that ‘Praxiteles’ affair— I didn’t interrupt to tell him that you did as much or more than I in clearing that up—and that if I could do as well in this case for him there’d be a cool fifty thousand in it for me—and no questions asked. I gathered that he meant he was much more anxious about the bank’s recovering the money than about catching the thieves, though of course he wants them snagged too if possible. So it’s up to us. Think of it, Tom! Fifty thousand bucks!” “Sounds very luscious. But why the ‘us’? Where do J come in?” “Fifty-fifty with me. Or, better— twenty-five—twenty-five.” “But you're the only original Sher- lock, Jim.. I’m ready to tackle any problem in the advertising line, ‘but when it comes to—” “How about the ‘Praxiteles’ case?” “That wasn’t de-teck-eting. That was just advertising. You don’t ex- pect me to run a personal, do you, say- ing: “The gentlemen who robbed the Totem Natidnal Bank will learn of something to their disadvantage if they will call at the office of James Carra- naugh, Sleuth.’ ?” “No-o-o. Not quite that. zs “*Not quite’! What in the name of the Chilkat gods do you expect me to do? ried “Nothing thai I want you to : : ee me locate Be find out some aby the name of ‘S: oe for ne Smith,’ who stopped at seven Seattle hotels one day last week.” “What’s that? At seven hotels? Is this Smith a man or a convention?” *That’s one of the things that I don’t know, that we have to find out. But he, or they, is, are—that is, were—” “Give her more gas, Jim, your en- gine’s missing fire.” “Don’t josh, Tom, This is the biggest - thing: I’ve ever had a chance to tackle, one of the biggest ever pulled off on the Coast, and if I—we can make’ good be- fore the government men, Pinkertons and police, our reputation’s made, and with that reward we can buy that island in the South Seas and all—” “Wait until you catch your hare. To return to this Samuel Smith—where does he come in?” “He stopped at seven hotels—” $ “So you said. That’s unusual but not necessarily criminal.” “And they found him in the vault.” “Hold on! What’s that? ‘Found him in the vault’? I thought you said, a minute ago, that they hadn’t caught anyone, didn’t know who did it? If they’ve got him what’s the use of—” “They’ve got Smith all right—at the morgue. But that hasn’t helped any— yet.” “At the—he’s dead?” “As dead as they make ’em. About eight inches of knife in his back.” “Better back ’way up, Jim, and tell me the whole story if Files ‘want: me to help, if Ican help you tall. It’s begin- ning to get. interesting.” fei “It'll get'a heap more so before we're through, or I miss_ Be guess. Well, Snedeker told /me—” oe need of. repeating what *