The Thubway Tham MEGAPACK ®. Johnston McCulley
are concerned, Craddock, whatever they are, I am not worryin’ at all. Of courthe, if they hold an examination and put on thome new copth, then I might thhiver thome. But the prethent memberth of the forthe do not bother me at all. Did you ever thee a lot of babieth tryin’ to grab hold of a thtreak of lightnin’, Craddock, and cry in’ becauthe they couldn’t? I am the thtreak of lightnin’, Craddock. The inferenthe ith obviouth, ath the thayin’ goeth.”
“Um!” Craddock grunted. “I am glad to find you in this state of mind. Tham. About the time a man commences to think he is that good, he gets careless. And when he gets careless—” Craddock snapped his fingers in an expressive manner by way of concluding his sentence.
Thubway Tham grinned. “Thith converthation hath been both interethtin’ and inthructive,” he said. “I regret that I mutht leave you now.”
“Going to take a little ride on a subway train, are you?”
“No,” said Tham in scorn, “I wath thinkin’ of flyin’ down the trackth in an airthip.”
“Airship or train, old-timer, I’ll be right along with you,” the detective declared. “If you nick a wallet this morning, boy, you’ll have to go some, I can tell you that.”
“Uh-huh! Do you mean to inthinuate that I am a crook?”
“Certainly, Tham—certainly. And a better one never lived, I’ll admit. If you’d start a correspondence school in pocket picking, you’d make a fortune.”
“There might be a lot in that thuggethtion,” Thubway Tham said thoughtfully. “One of thethe dayth I might retire and inthruct the young.”
“Yes? You’ll be getting some free instruction yourself in the big stone house up the river long before that,” Detective Craddock told him.
“You think tho? A man never knowth what fate hath in thtore for him. But thomething theemth to tell me, Craddock, that my addrethth at Nothey Moore’th plathe will continue to be my addrethth for thome time to come.”
A downtown express dashed into the station and the doors flew open. Men and women poured out of the cars, and more men and women poured into them. Thubway Tham entered the nearest, with Detective Craddock on his heels.
Detective Craddock was grinning wickedly. Thubway Tham, he realized, knew better than to attempt to pick a pocket with the officer within four feet of him. His presence there would enrage Tham; in time Tham would decide that it was not a fortunate day, and would leave the subway and its wallet-carrying citizens in peace.
On flew the train, past station after station until it was far downtown.
There Thubway Tham left it, ascended to a busy street, and went along it like some tourist taking in the sights. Detective Craddock followed a short distance behind.
Now Thubway Tham, as you who have read the chronicles of his adventures are aware, was superstitious to a degree, and always played a “hunch.” The idea was firm in his mind that this was a fortunate day, and might be made a day of profit. Hence, he desired above everything else to dodge Detective Craddock, reenter the subway, and find a victim.
Now and then he quickened his pace in the crowd, but he did not shake Craddock off. He dodged through office buildings, and still the detective, grinning, trailed him. Thubway Tham’s face burned with anger, his heart swelled with rage. He decided that he would evade Craddock as a matter of pride, if it took him half a dozen hours.
There ensued a chase that would have gladdened the heart of a producer of film comedies. It endured for the greater part of an hour, and in the end Thubway Tham, emerging from the basement of a building, found that he was alone. For fifteen minutes he remained standing in a doorway, but Detective Craddock did not appear. Tham grinned and turned toward the nearest subway entrance.
He seemed to be in no haste. He walked slowly and watched the crowd, always looking for Detective Craddock. But he reached the entrance of the subway without having seen the officer, and grinned again. Craddock thought that he could not be dodged, did he? Well, he knew better now!
Tham descended into the bore and waited for an uptown express, which was not long in coming. The car he entered was well crowded, and Tham began his search for a victim. He found one almost immediately.
Standing a short distance from him was a prosperous-looking individual who was talking to an acquaintance. The burden of the remarks of the prosperous-looking one was to the effect that he had “cleaned up” on a certain stock through a third-rate broker’s office.
As a testimonial of his financial ability, he took out a big wallet and exhibited to his friend a sheaf of bills of large denomination, which almost made Thubway Tham’s eyes bulge.
Tham started to move nearer in an unobtrusive manner. But fate was against him for the time being. Before he could get near enough to accomplish his purpose, the train arrived at a station, and the man with the fat wallet, which he still held firmly in one hand, started to leave the car with his friend. Thubway Tham grimly followed them.
Be it remembered that Thubway Tham did not like to “lift a leather” except in the subway. He was superstitious about that, too. He felt that in the subway his fortune was secure, but that there was danger for him elsewhere.
Yet he followed his man, scarcely knowing why he did so, only realizing that the filled wallet fascinated him. The two men ahead wandered up the street and entered a tonsorial parlor, Thubway Tham waited and watched.
It was more than half an hour later when the man with the wallet emerged from the barber shop, said farewell to the other, and turned down the street alone. Thubway Tham uttered a sigh of relief and followed again. He had wasted precious time, and he did not intend to allow his quarry to escape him now.
The prospective victim seemed to be in a sort of seventh heaven of delight. Thubway Tham thought that he understood. The man ahead had acquired coin without work, and the fact had gone to his head. He undoubtedly was seeing visions of yachts and country places. He had won once. He would double stakes and win again. Another king of finance had been born!
If such were the case, Thubway Tham knew that his work would be easy. A gust of wind blew aside the coattails of the prospective victim, and Tham saw that he carried the wallet in his hip pocket. Tham sniffed.
Being a professional pickpocket, he sneered at a man who carried a wallet in a hip pocket, though it made things easier for him. He wondered why men did it, since newspapers, magazines, and police departments throughout the land always were warning them not to do so. But he was glad that this man did, though it stamped him an unsophisticated wretch.
Thubway Tham grinned when he saw that the other was bound for a subway entrance. He followed him down the steps and to the platform. Once more the prospective victim boarded an uptown express, and once more Thubway Tham followed at his heels. The car was crowded and jammed, much to Tham’s delight. His quarry was compelled to stand near the door, hanging to a strap. Tham stood directly behind him.
The stage could not have been set better. A man hanging to a strap in a subway express is straining his body, and so an unusual touch or brush against him does not attract his attention. Moreover, he is uncomfortable, and thinking hard things about the transportation company, and an angry man does not care properly for his valuables.
Tham had only to do his work and dart out of the door when the express made the next stop. He looked carefully around the car, but saw neither Detective Craddock nor any other officer of the law. It was almost too good to be true.
Tham knew that the train was approaching the next stop. He managed to get a step nearer, and now he was almost brushing against the man with the wallet.
But it was not to be. Somebody behind Tham called softly, and the prospective victim turned around. He looked, smiled, extended his free hand. He was greeting another acquaintance—and he had turned in such a manner that Tham could not get at the wallet.
Thubway Tham felt like cursing, but he did not. He was the soul of patience at such a time. He had waited for some time,