a great deal better to be rid of this honest money.
Thubway Tham made up his mind. He plunged down the stairs and went to the subway platform. He pressed into the crowd, and he dropped that roll of bills into the coat pocket of a hard-working clerk and then passed on.
Somehow, he felt better and safer. He would have no hoodoo money on his person, he declared to himself. He boarded a downtown express and did not seem to care that there was nobody on the car worth trying to rob.
Far downtown he ascended to the street and walked leisurely along it. For the third time that day there was a touch on his arm. Thubway Tham turned in surprise.
He saw the mild-appearing man and another. The second was a headquarters detective Thubway Tham knew well.
“I want you, Tham!” the detective said.
“Thir?”
“You heard me! Got you now, boy! Craddock might not be able to land you, but I have.”
“What ith thith all about?” Tham wanted to know.
“This gentleman says that you lifted his wallet a few minutes ago in the subway. He watched you and followed you until he found me. You haven’t had time to get rid of the money, Tham. And some of the bills are marked!”
And the man from headquarters grinned. Thubway Tham felt a sudden lump in his throat and gulped. So there had been an attempt to “frame” him! The little, mild-looking man undoubtedly was another headquarters officer. There had been an attempt to “plant” marked bills on him. It was a raw deal!
“Here’s where I search you, Tham!” the detective said. “It’s up the river for you!”
“Jutht a minute!” Tham said. “You thay that thith man declareth I took hith wallet, and that he hath watched me?”
“That’s it!”
“And if I did, I mutht have the coin on me right now—and they are marked billth?”
“You’ve got it!”
“The man lieth!” Thubway Tham declared. “You go right ahead and thearch me! How are thothe, billth marked?”
“Little red cross in each corner, Tham.”
“Huh! That man ith crathy! Go ahead and thearch me!”
At this the headquarters man appeared to be a bit uncertain. But the other nodded, and so the search began. It brought forth no marked bills, of course. Tham had some money with him, but none of it was marked.
“Tho!” he said. “You want to be careful how you go around accuthin’ honetht men. For ten centth I’d punch you on the nothe! My goodnethth!”
He turned his back angrily and walked on down the street, and the two men he left behind looked at each other and growled curses low down in their throats. Thubway Tham had escaped them. They did not exactly know how, but they realized that he had done it.
Far down the street, Tham began to chuckle. “Lucky day!” he said. “I’ll thay it ith!”
And a puzzled, hard-working clerk, much in debt, was examining two hundred and fifty dollars in bills at that moment and wondering whether Heaven had sent manna at a time when manna was needed badly.
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