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Ep. 9 - A Match for the Government · True Tales of The Secret Service

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Chapter nine, a match for the government. I wonder how long it will
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take, mused Bill Quinn as he tossed aside a copy of his favorite fictional
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monthly to remove the ethical restrictions which the war placed upon novels and short stories.
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Did you ever notice the changing style in villains? For example, a
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decade or so ago, it was all the rage to have a Japanese do
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the dirty work. For then we were taking the Yellow peril rather seriously,
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and it was reflected in our reading matter. The tall, well dressed Russian
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with a sinister glitter in his black eyes next stopped upon the scene, to
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be followed by the villain, whose sworethy complexion gave a hint of his Latin
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ancestry. For the past few years, of course, every real villain has
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had to have it least a touch of Teutonic blood to account for the various
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treacheries which he tackles. I don't recall a single word or a short story
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either that has had an English or French villain who has foiled in the last
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few pages. I suppose you'd call it the untant cordiale of the novelists,
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a sort of concerted attempt by the writing plan to do their bid against the
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hun and mighty good propaganda. It was too, But unfortunately the detective of
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real life can't always tell by determining a man's nationality whether he's going to turn
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out to be a krook or a hero. When you come right down to
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it, every country has about the same proportion of each and it's only by
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the closest observation that one can arrive at a definite and fact supported conclusion.
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Details trifles unknown noticed in themselves play a far larger part in the final denu
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mat than any preconceived ideas or fanciful theories. There was the case of Ezra
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Marks and the Dillingham Diamonds. For example, Ezra continued the former Secret Service
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operative when he had eased his game leg into a position where it no longer
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gave him active trouble was all that the name implied. Born in Vermont of
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a highly Puritanical family, he had been named for his paternal grandfather, and
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probably also for some character from the Old Testament. I'm not awfully strong on
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that biblical stuff myself. It wasn't long after he grew up, however,
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that life on the farm began to Paul. He found a copy of the
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Life of Alan Pinkerton somewhere and read it through until he knew it from cover
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to cover. It was only natural in a boy of his age. He
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determined to become a great detective and drifted down to Boston with that object in
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view. But once in the city, he found that detecting was a little
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more difficult than he had imagined, and finally agreed to compromise by accepting a
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very minor position in the police department. Luckily, his beat lay along the
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waterfront, and he got tangled up in two or three smuggling cases, which
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he managed to unravel in fine shape, and in this way attracted the attention
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of the customs branch of the Treasury Department, which is always on the lookout
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for new timber. It's a hard life, you know, and one which
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doesn't constitute a good risk for an insurance company. So there are always gaps
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to be filled, and Ezra plugged up one of them very nicely, as
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might have been expected. The new Englander was hardly ever addressed by his full
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name. Ea Z was the title they coined for him, and ea Z
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he was from that time on at least to everyone in the service. The
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people on the other side of the fence, however, the men and women
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who look upon the United States government as a joke and its laws as hurdles
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over which they can jump whenever they wish, found that this mark was far
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from an easy one. He it was who handled the Wang Foo opium case
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in San Diego in nineteen eleven. He nailed the gun runners at El Paso
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when half a dozen other men had fallen down on the assignment, and there
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were at least three Canadian cases which bore the imprint of his latent genius on
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the finished reports. His particular kind of genius was distinctly out of the ordinary
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too. He wasn't flashy, and he was far from a hard worker.
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He just stuck around and watched everything worth watching until he located the tip he
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wanted. Then he went to it, and the case was finished. The
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chap who stated that genius is the capacity for infinite attention to details had Ezra
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sized up to a t, and it was one of these details, probably
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the most trifling one of all, that led to his most startling success.
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Back in the spring of nineteen twelve, the European agents of the Treasury Department
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reported to Washington that a collection of uncut diamonds, most of them rather large,
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had been sold to the German representative of firm and Rotterdam from certain tips
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which they picked up. However, the men abroad were of the opinion that
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the stones were destined for the United States, and advised that all German boats
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be carefully watched, because the Dillingham Diamonds, as the collection was known,
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had been last heard of en route to Hamburg, and it was to be
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expected that they would clear from there. The cablegram didn't cause any wild excitement
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in the Treasury Department. European agents have a habit of trying to stir up
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trouble in order to make it appear that they are earning their money, and
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then they claim that the people over here are not always alert enough to follow
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their tips. It's the old game of passing the buck. You have to
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expect it in any business. But as events turned out, the men on
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the other side were dead right. Almost before Washington had time a fish to
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digest the cable and to mail out the stereotyped warnings based upon it. A
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report filtered in from Wheeling, West Virginia that one of the newly made coal
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millionaires in that section had invested in some uncut diamonds as large as the end
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of your thumb. The report came in merely as a routine statement, but
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it set the customs authorities to thinking. Uncut stones, you know, are
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hard to locate, either when they are being brought in or after they actually
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arrive. Their color is dull and slate like, and there is little to
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distinguish them from other and far less valuable pebbles. Of course, there might
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not be the slightest connection in the world between the Wheeling diamonds and those of
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the Dillingham collection, But then, on the other hand, there might.
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Hence it behooved the customs people to put on a little more speed, and
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to watch the incoming steamers just as carefully as they knew how Some weeks passed
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and the department had sunk back into a state of comfortable ease, broken only
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occasionally by a minor case or two, when a wire arrived one morning stating
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that two uncut diamonds had appeared in New York under conditions which appeared distinctly suspicious.
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The owner had offered them at a price way under the market figure,
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and then, rather than reply to one or two questions relative to the history
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of the stones, had disappeared. There was no record of the theft of
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any diamonds answering to the description of those seen in Maiden Lane, and the
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police force inquired if Washington thought they could have been smuggled. Of course they
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could snorted, the Chief, but there's nothing to prove it. Unless we
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get our hands upon them and a detailed description of the Dillingham stones, it's
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impossible to tell. So he cabled abroad for an accurate list of the diamonds,
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which had been sold a couple of months earlier, with special instructions to
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include any identifying marks, as it was essential to spot the stones before a
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case could be built up in court. The following Tuesday, a long dispatch
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from Rotterdam reached the department, stating, among other things, that one of
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the Dillingham diamonds could be distinguished by a heart shaped flaw located just below the
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surface. That same afternoon came another wire from New York to the effect that
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two rough stones answering to the description of the ones alluded to in a previous
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message, had turned up in the jewelry district, after passing through a dozen
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underground channels. Has one of the diamonds a heart shaped flaw in it?
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The chief inquired by wire it has came back. The response, how did
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you know it? I didn't, muttered the head of the custom service,
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but I took a chance. The odds were twenty to one against me.
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But I've seen these long shots win before. Now ringing for Mahoney, his
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assistant, we'll see what can be done to keep the rest of that collection
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from drifting in if it hasn't already arrived. Where's Marx located now, the
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chief inquired, when Mahoney entered somewhere in the vicinity of Buffalo. I believe
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he's working on that cheesebro case, the one in connection with by no cut
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in the chief, But that's pin money compared with this matter of the Dillingham
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diamonds. Thousands of dollars are at stake here against hundreds there. Besides,
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if this thing ever leaks out to the papers, we'll never hear the last
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of it. The New York Office isn't in any too strong as it is
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wire marks to drop the trail of those silk hounds and beat it to New
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York as fast as he can. He'll find real work awaiting him there,
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something that ought to prove a test of the reputation he's built up on the
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other three boarders. Hurry it up. Ea Zy found the message awaiting him
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when he returned to his hotel that night, and without the slightest symptom of
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a grouch, grabbed the next train for New York. As he told me
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later, he didn't mind in the least dropping the silk matter, because he
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had put in the better part of a month on it and didn't seem any
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closer than when he started. It took Ezra less than five minutes to get
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all the dope the New York Office had on the case, and it took
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him nearly six months to solve it. The two diamonds in Wheeling and the
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two that turned up here are the only ones we know about, said the
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man in charge of the New York office. The original Dillingham collection contained twenty
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one rough stones, but whether the other seventeen have already been brought in,
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or whether the people who are handling them have shipped them elsewhere, is wholly
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problematical. The Chief learned about the heart shaped flaw from our man at Rotterdam,
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so that identifies one of the stones. But at the same time it
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doesn't help us in the least, for we can't handle the case from this
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end. Same rules is on the coast, inquired Marx. Precisely, you've
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got to tackle the other end of the game. No rummaging around here trying
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to pick up the trail that ends with the stone in Maiden Lane. As
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you know, this bunch is pretty well organized. Wheels within wheels, and
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fences on fences. You get something on one of them, and the rest
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of the crowd will perjure themselves black in the face to get him off,
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with the result that your case will be laughed out of court, and the
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man you're really after, the chap who's running the stones under your nose,
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is a thousand miles away with a grin on his face. You've got to
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land him first and the others later if the chief wants them. The chances
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are though, that he'll be well satisfied to have the goods and the crook
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that's doing the main part of the work well drawled. Marx. I trust
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he gets his satisfaction. Got any ideas on the matter. Nary an idea.
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The stones were sold abroad, and presumably they were headed for Hamburg,
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which would appear to point to a German boat. Four of them, supposedly
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one of them certainly turned up here without passing through the office or paying the
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customary duty. Now go to it. When Marx got back to his hotel
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and started to think the problem over, he had to admit that there wasn't
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very much to go to. It was the thinnest case he had ever tackled,
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a perfect circle of a problem without the slightest sign of a beginning,
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save the one which was barred. Anxious as he was to make good,
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he had to concede that the department's policy of working from the other end of
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the case was the right course to follow. He had heard of too many
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arrests that fell flat, too many weary weeks of work that went for nothing
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because the evidence was insufficient. Not to realize the justice of the regulations that
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appeared to hamper him. No, he thought, as he half dreamed over
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a pipeload of tobacco, the case seems to be impregnable, but there must
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be some way to jimmy into it. If you try long enough. His
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first move was the fairly obvious one of searching the newspaper files to discover just
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what ships had docked during the ten days previous to the appearance of the stones
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and wheeling. But this led nowhere, because that week had been a very
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busy one in maritime circles. The Celtic, the Mauretania, the Kaiser Wilhelm
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de Grass, the compossessed in Sicily, the deutsch Land, and a host
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of other smaller vessels had landed within that time. Just as a check upon
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his observations, he examined the records for the week preceding the first appearance of
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the diamonds in New York. Here again he ran into a snag, but
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one which enabled him to eliminate at least half of the vessels he had considered
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before. However, there still remained a sufficient number to make it impossible to
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watch all of them, or even to fix upon two or three which appeared
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more suspicious than the others. The information from abroad pointed to the fact that
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a German boat was carrying the diamonds, but Marks figured there was nothing in
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the world to prevent the stones from being taken into England or France or Italy
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and reshipped from there. They had turned up in the United States, so
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why couldn't they have been slipped through the customs of other countries just as easily.
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The one point about the whole matter that appeared significant to him was that
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two stones had been reported in each case, a pair in Wheeling and another
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pair in New York. This evidence would be translated either to mean that the
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smugglers preferred to offer the diamonds in small lots so as not to center suspicion
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too sharply in their movements, or that the space which they used to conceal
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the stones was extremely limited. Marks inclined to the latter theory, because two
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stones rather than one, had been offered in each instance. If the whole
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lot had been run in, he argued, the men responsible would market them
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singly rather than in pairs. This would not detract in the slightest from the
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value of the stones, as it isn't easy to match rough diamonds and thus
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increase their market value. Having settled this matter to his own satisfaction, and
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being convinced that as not more than two stones were being run in at one
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time, it would take at least eight more trips to import the entire shipment.
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Easy settled down to a part of the government detective's work which is the
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hardest and the most necessary in his life, that which can best be characterized
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by the phrase watchful waiting. For weeks at a time, he haunted the
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docks and wharves along the New York Waterfront. His tall, angular figure became
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a familiar sight at every landing place, and his eyes roamed restlessly over the
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crowds that came down the gangplank. In a number of instances he personally directed
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the searching of bags and baggage which appeared to be suspicious. Save for locating
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a few bolts of valuable lace and an oil painting concealed in the handle of
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a walking stick which was patently hollow, he failed to turn up a thing.
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The only ray of hope that he could glimpse was the fact that since
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he had been assigned to the case, four more stones had been reported again
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in pairs. This proved that the former reasoning had been correct, and also
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that the smugglers evidently intended to bring in all of the twenty one stones two
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at a time. But when he came to catalog the hiding places which might
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be used to conceal two articles of the size of the stones already spotted.
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He was stumped. The list included a walking stick, the heels of a
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pair of women shoes, two dummy pieces of candy concealed in a box of
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real confections, a box of talcum, a bag of marbles, the handle
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of an umbrella, or any one of a number of other trinkets which travelers
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carry as a matter of course, or bring home as curios or gifts.
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Finally, after two solid months of unproductive work, he boarded the midnight train
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for Washington and strolled into the Chief's office the following morning to lay his cards
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on the table. Frankly, he admitted, I haven't accomplished a thing.
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I'm as far from breaking into the circle as I was at the beginning,
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and so far as I can see, there isn't any hope of doing it
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for some time to come, well, inquired the chief, Do you want
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to be relieved of the case or do you want me to drop the matter
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entirely to confess that the custom service has been licked by a single clever smuggler.
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Not at all, And Marks's tone indicated that such a thought had never
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entered his head. I want the service to stick with the case, and
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I want to continue to handle it. But I do want a definite assurance
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of time. How much time that I can't say. The only lead I've
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located, and that isn't sufficient to be dignified by the term clue will take
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weeks and probably months to run to earth. I don't see another earthly trail
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to follow, but I would like to have time to see whether this one
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leads anywhere. All right, agreed the chief fully realizing what easy was up
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against, and not being hurried by any pressure from the outside, for the
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case had been carefully kept out of the newspapers. This is September. Suppose
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we say the first of the year. How does that suit you fair enough?
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If that's the best you can do, I'm afraid it is, was
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the comment from across the desk, Because that's all the case is worth to
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us. Your time is valuable, and we can't afford to spend a year
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on any case unless it's something as big as the sugar frauds. Stick with
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it until New Years, and if nothing new develops before then, we'll have
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to admit we're elict and turn you loose on something else. Thanks, Chief,
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said Marx, getting up from his chair. You can depend on my
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doing everything possible in the next three months to locate the leak, and I
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surely appreciate your kindness in not delivering an ultimatum that you want the smuggler or
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my job. But then I guess you know that I couldn't work any harder
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than I'm going to anyhow, possibly, agreed the head of the service.
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And then again, it may be because I have confidence that you'll turn the
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trick within the year. Want any help from this end? No thanks.
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This looks like a one man game, and it ought not to take more
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than one man to finish it. A whole bunch of people always clutter up
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the place, and you get tangled in their pet theories and personal ideas.
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What I would like, though, is to be kept in close touch with
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any further developments concerning stones that appear later on, where they are located,
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their exact weight and diameter, and any other facts that might indicate a possible
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hiding place. You'll get that, all right, promised the Chief, and
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I trust that you'll develop a red hot trail of your own before January first.
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With that, Mark shook hands and started back to New York, fairly
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well pleased with the results of his trip, but totally disgusted with the lack
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of progress which he had made since leaving Buffalo. Early in October, a
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message from Washington informed him that a couple of uncut diamonds had turned up in
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Cincinnati Stones, which answered to the description of a pair of the Dillingham collection.
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Around the tenth of November, another pair was heard from in Boston,
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and anyone who was familiar with Marks and his methods would have noted a tightening
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of the muscles around his mouth and a narrowing of his eyes, which always
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indicated that he was nearing the solution of a difficulty. After receiving the November
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message, he stopped haunting the wharves and commenced to frequent the steamship offices of
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the Hamburg, American, North German, Lloyd and Lanarch lines. The latter,
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as you probably know, is operated by Welsh and British Capital and runs
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a few small boats carrying passengers who would ordinarily travel second class, together with
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a considerable amount of freight. When the first day of December donned Mars,
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drew a deep red circle around the name of the month on his calendar,
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and emitted a prayerful oath to the effect that he'd be good and eternally damned
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if that month didn't contain an unexpected Christmas present for a certain person. He
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made no pretense of knowing who the person was, but he did feel that
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he was considerably closer to his prey than he had been five months before.
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Fate, as someone has already remarked, only deals a man a certain number
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of poor hands before his luck changes. Sometimes it gets worse, but on
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the average it improves. In Ezra Marks's case, fate took the form of
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a storm at sea, one of those winter hurricanes that sweep across the Atlantic
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and play havoc with shipping. Ezrael was patiently waiting for one of three boats,
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which one he didn't know, but by the process of elimination he had
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figured to a mathematical certainty that one of them ought to carry two uncut diamonds,
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which were destined never to visit the custom's office. Little by little,
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through the months that had passed, he had weeded out the ships which failed
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to make port at the time the diamonds arrived, calculating the time by the
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dates in which the stones appeared elsewhere, and there were only three ships left.
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One of them was a North German loiter, the second belonged to the
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Hamburg American fleet, and the third possessed an unpronounceable Welsh name and flew the
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pennant of the Lanarch line. As it happened, the two German ships ran
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into the teeth of the gale and were delayed three days on their trip,
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while the Welch boat missed the storm entirely and docked on time. Two days
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later came a message from Washington to the effect that two diamonds uncut had been
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offered for sale in Philadelphia. Have to have one more month, replied Marx,
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imperative can practically guarantee success by fifteenth of January, for that was the
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date in which the Welsh ship was due to return. Extension granted, came
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the word from Washington, rely on you to make good. Can't follow the
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case any longer than a month under any circumstances. Marx grinned when he got
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that message. The trap was set, and unless something unforeseen occurred, Easy
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felt that the man and the method would both be in the open before long.
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When the Welsh ship was reported off quarantine in January, Marx bundled himself
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into a big fur coat and went down the bay in one of the government
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boats, leaving instructions that the moment the ship docked, she was to be
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searched from stem to stern. Don't overlook as much as a pill box or
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a rat hole, he warned his assistance, and more than a score of
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men saw to it that his instructions were carried out to the letter. Beyond
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exhibiting his credentials, Marx made no effort to explain why the ship was under
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suspicion. He watched the deck closely to prevent the crew from throwing packages overboard,
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and as soon as they reached doc he requested all officers to join him
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in one of the big rooms belonging to the custom service. There he explained
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his reasons for believing that someone on board was guilty of defrauding the government out
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of duty on a number of uncut diamonds. What's more, he concluded at
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the end of an address which was purposely lengthy in order to give his men
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time to search the ship, I am willing to stake my position against the
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fact that two more diamonds on board the ship at this moment. Luckily no
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one took him up, for he was wrong. The captain, pompous and
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self assertive, preferred to rise and rant against the infernal injustice of this high
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handed method. Marx settled back to listen in silence, and his fingers strayed
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to the side pocket of his coat, where his pet pipe reposed. His
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mind strayed to the thought of how his men were getting along on the ship,
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and he absentmindedly packed the pipe and struck a match to light it.
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It was then that his i fell upon the man seated beside him, Halley,
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the British first mate of the steamer. He had seen him sitting there
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before, but had paid little attention to him. Now he became aware of
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the fact that the mate was smoking a huge, deep bold Meerschaum pipe.
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At least it had been in his mouth ever since he entered, ready to
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be smoked, but unlighted. Almost without thinking about it, Marks leaned forward
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and presented the lighted match, holding it above the mate's pipe. Light He
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inquired in a matter of fact tone to his amazement. The other started back
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as if he had been struck, and then, recovering himself, muttered,
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no thanks, I'm not smoking. Not smoking was the thought that flashed through
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Marks's head. Then why But the solution of the matter flashed upon him almost
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instantly, before the mate had time to move, Marx's hand snapped forward and
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seized the pipe. With the same movement, he turned it upside down and
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wrapped the bowl upon the table. Out fell a fair amount of tobacco,
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followed by two slate colored pebbles, which rolled across the table under the very
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eyes of the captain. I guess that's all the evidence we need, Marx
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declared, with a laugh of relief. You needn't worry about informing your consul
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and entering a protest, Captain Williams, I'll take charge of your mate and
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these stones, and you can clear when you wish. End of Chapter nine.