“now for some fun!” exclaimed mr. newton. “those detectives will get the biggest surprise of their lives.”
“yes, and it will give you a chance to get back at them for the way they treated you,” remarked larry.
“there goes the door!” cried the reporter, as a louder crash betokened that the portal had given way. “this will bring everyone in the house out to see what is going on.”
following the crash there came a series of shrill cries from the apartment below.
“come on down!” called mr. newton to larry. “we can see better. besides i want jones and douglass to notice that i’m on the job when they get fooled.”
larry and the reporter raced downstairs. they saw a number of other tenants in the building making their way toward the scene of the disturbance, and the stairway was well crowded.
“here we go!” cried mr. newton as he passed through the burst-in door. “come on, larry!”
206 a strange sight met the gaze of the reporter. on the floor were two of the men who had been in the habit of working in the rooms. on top of each of them sat a detective; jones on one and douglass on the other. the men were trying to get up, but the detectives prevented them by holding their heads close to the floor.
in the corner was the third man, and in front of him was a third detective, who had a short club in his hand. every now and again the detective would jab the man in the stomach with the billy, causing the man to double up like a jumping-jack.
“keep still!” cried the detective.
“how can i when you keep tickling me with that club!” exclaimed the man.
“i don’t care how you do it, only keep still!” the officer repeated, giving the man another jab. “we’ll show you counterfeiters how to behave!”
“counterfeiters?” the man repeated, apparently in great astonishment.
“yes, counterfeiters. you can’t fool us any longer. we’ve got you dead to rights. we’ll seize your whole plant, and confiscate all the bad half-dollars you’ve been making. we’ve been watching you for some time. we know how you melt the metal up and then pour it into moulds!”
“counterfeiters! you are crazy!” cried the man. “that boy there,” pointing to larry, whom207 he just then saw, “he knows better than that. he knows what we make!”
“i guess you’ve made a mistake this time,” remarked mr. newton, coming forward. “how are you, jones, and you too, douglass?”
“um!” grunted the detectives, still sitting on their prisoners. “i guess we know a counterfeiting plant when we see one. you can’t fool us!”
“lift up that sheet,” said the man in the corner, nodding to larry to raise a cloth that covered a long table. the boy did so.
“that’s what we’ve been making, out of melted lead!” the man in the corner went on, dodging another jab from the detective’s club. “they’re only toy soldiers for the holiday trade. we make them of old lead which we melt up, and then we color them. we didn’t want the other manufacturers to know about it. it’s getting near christmas and we’re making up an extra lot to sell on the streets. we’re not counterfeiters. you’ve made a mistake. i asked larry to come in the rooms the other day to get his opinion on whether or not they were good-looking soldiers, and he said they were fine ones; didn’t you, larry?” asked the man.
larry nodded in assent. the detectives looked rather foolish. someone in the crowd, that had gathered outside the door, began to laugh. soon there were several titters.
208 “would you mind letting me up now?” asked the man on whom detective jones was sitting.
“me too,” said the other prostrate one.
“get up!” growled the detectives, much disgusted at the outcome of the affair.
they had expected to discover a counterfeiting plant and had only succeeded in unearthing an improvised toy shop. larry’s suspicions had been dispelled as soon as he entered the place, a few days previous, but he and mr. newton had decided to say nothing of this, as they wished to play a trick on the officers who had gone out of their way once to treat the reporter in rather a shabby fashion.
“this will make a good story,” remarked mr. newton so the detectives would hear.
“you’re not going to print this, are you?” asked the officers, looking more foolish than ever.
“of course,” replied the reporter. “it isn’t often that you fellows make mistakes, but when you do it’s only fair to tell of them. i’ll make a good story out of it.”
“we’ll get even with you if you do,” growled jones. “we’ll fix you for this.”
“i’m only paying you for what you did to me some time ago,” said mr. newton, as the detectives released their prisoners. the soldier-makers brushed the dirt from their clothes as the detectives left.
“i couldn’t imagine what was up,” said one of209 the toy-men. “the first i knew those detectives burst the door in. i thought perhaps they were thieves, but when they threw us down and sat on us, i knew there must be something strange the matter. the idea to take us for counterfeiters!”
“i thought you were myself,” said larry, “especially when you gave my mother that bad fifty-cent piece.”
“that’s so, i nearly forgot about that,” one of the men exclaimed. “that was an old pocket-piece of mine. i gave it to her by mistake. i will give her a good one for it right away.”
“here it is,” larry remarked, producing the bad coin, and receiving a good one.
“now that the excitement is over i guess we can go on making lead soldiers,” remarked the head workman, as he propped up the broken door and started the furnace.
“yes, and we must get to work on the story,” the reporter said.
“i wonder if the other papers will have it in the morning,” came from larry.
“not much danger,” replied mr. newton. “jones and douglass will keep very quiet about it, since they were fooled.”
none of the morning sheets had an account of the affair, and that afternoon the leader came out with a big display story, telling how the detectives, hoping for much credit from their performance, had planned to raid a counterfeiters’210 den. mr. newton set forth in lively sentences how the officers had kept watch, and had, with a great show of authority, burst into the place, only to find that it was merely a temporary toy shop.
the story made a hit, and mr. emberg was warm in his praise of mr. newton and larry as well. he said they had conducted the case well.
“you are doing good work, larry,” said the city editor. “keep it up!”
whereat larry blushed like a girl, though he felt ashamed of it. however, he need not have been, for not a reporter on the paper, from the oldest down, but who would have liked to have had such a beat to his credit.
larry went home to supper, and then prepared to attend night school. his mind was in such a whirl over the events of the day that he did what seldom happened to him; he missed in his lessons. the teacher, who had taken quite a notion to larry, was much surprised, but larry did not think it wise to tell what made him so careless. he promised to do better the next night.
when larry reached the leader office a few mornings later he found considerable confusion evident. a number of reporters were talking in one corner, and mr. newton was conversing with someone over the telephone in the enclosed booth.
“what’s the matter?” asked larry of bud.
“big robbery in some millionaire’s house,” replied bud. “they just discovered it. none of211 the morning papers have it. lot of gold, silver, and diamonds taken.”
“that’ll be a good story,” commented larry.
a few minutes later mr. emberg came in. in a little while mr. newton had acquainted the city editor with the robbery, a “tip” concerning which had been received from police headquarters a short time before.
“it’s mr. reynolds’s house,” said mr. newton. “the family slept late. police think chloroform was used. they found the place ransacked, a small safe forced, and about twenty-five thousand dollars’ worth of stuff taken, including the famous reynolds diamonds.”
“you’d better jump out on the story,” said the city editor to mr. newton. “do you want any help?”
“i don’t know. i guess i can handle it alone. but i might take larry along,” he added in a lower tone. “there may be something he can do.”
“all right,” responded mr. emberg. “get the story in early, and interview the people. might get a picture of mrs. reynolds, and i’ll send a photographer to take a snap of the house. hurry up, now.”
“come along, larry,” said mr. newton. “we’ll see if we can solve this mystery and recover the diamonds.”
the two started off, followed by the rather212 envious eyes of some of the other reporters. it was considered an honor to be assigned to cover a big story, though professional etiquette forbade any reporter from saying anything.
at the reynolds house they found a number of policemen on guard, to keep away the curious persons that had gathered as soon as the robbery became known in the neighborhood. one of the bluecoats attempted to bar the progress of larry and mr. newton.
“from the leader,” announced the reporter, as he nodded to another policeman whom he knew.
“it’s all right, jim,” said the latter to the officer who had stopped mr. newton, whereat the reporter and larry were allowed to enter the house. inside they found a number of “plain clothes men,” as detectives are sometimes called, from the fact that they wear no uniform.
“hello, patsy!” called mr. newton familiarly to a short, stout, bald-headed detective, “what sort of a job have you been letting ’em pull off on you now.”
“looks like a second-story one,” replied the detective.
“no more a second-story one than you are,” retorted another detective who stood near, making some notes in a book. “it’s an inside job.”
“anyhow, the stuff’s gone i s’pose,” remarked mr. newton with a smile.
“sure thing,” replied the fat man.
213 “what’s a second-story job?” asked larry of his friend.
“the police call it that when the thief climbs up on the porch, or, in some way, enters the second-story windows.”
“and what’s an inside one?”
“that’s where some of the servants in the house either take the valuables or help the thieves by letting them in, or by leaving a window conveniently open. but come on, we’ll take a look for ourselves. it’s all right, patsy, i s’pose,” went on mr. newton, speaking to the short detective.
“sure, go ahead, investigate as much as you like,” was the answer.
