"LARGEST ORGANIZATION OF ITS KIND IN THE WORLD”

MUTUAL BENEFIT HEALTH
and ACCIDENT ASSOCIATION

e
M.I.A. Branch Office:
475 Howe Street

Vancouver, B.C.

COMPLIMENTS OF

Boyles Bros. Drilling Co. Ltd.

DIAMOND DRILLING CONTRACTORS and
MANUFACTURERS

1275 - 1291 PARKER STREET
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Associate Companies in PORT ARTHUR AND KIRKLAND LAKE, ONT.;
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA; MANILA, P. I.; SINGAPORE, S. S.

A close examination of the notes seemed
to indicate that they had been printed from
an etched plate. Who, the experts asked,
was clever enough to make such plates?
They went through their files and checked

up on men who were capable of such work
but they were all accounted for. None of
them were on the loose. Evidently this was
the work of a newcomer and that made it

doubly serious.

There was little chance of tracking the
counterfeiters down through the paper they
used. It was ordinary butter paper obtain-
able anywhere without question. Silk
threads were laid in between two pieces
that were then glued together. Each thread
had been laid with meticulous care.

Suddenly the flood of spurious notes
ceased. The Secret Service agents sensed
they were nearing their goal. They must be
getting hot. Otherwise why should the
counterfeiters suspend operations? This
optimistic view was ill founded. The coun-
terfeiters were not suspending operations.
They were moving their plant to go into
business on a larger scale.

The Secret Service agents had not given
up. They could never give up until the
maker of those notes was arrested. If this

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Special Service Phone FAirmont 6688

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continued it would be apt to upset the
entire U. S. currency system. Canadian
agents too were interested. There was no
telling when the counterfeiters might start
on Canadian bank notes.

But every trail led to a dead end. No-
body seemed to be able to recall who had
passed the notes. Merchants brought them
into banks for deposit and it was then they
learned they were spurious. Nor did this
always happen. Several tellers, who were
supposed to be experts at detecting counter-
feit money, had been fooled.

The U. S. Secret Service was bending
every effort to trap the criminals. They
covered virtually every inch of ground on
the Pacific Coast. They felt that here was
where the notes were being made. Another,
and more alarming thought now entered
their minds. Those first notes, they decided,
had been put out as a test series. Their
was now assured. They would
begin to manufacture them in really large
amounts.

The trail, if it could be called that, began
to center around Beaumont, California.
Here, they learned, was a man who lived
on a section of land. He was a queer sort of
person, his neighbours said. He was thought
to be a Russian. He was undoubtedly
clever: a scientist, some of them said.

The officers concentrated on this. They
sent out circulars to their agents and asked
them to inquire if any of the persons passing
the spurious notes resembled a Russian.
The results of this, as stated before, were
discouraging. Nobody seemed able to de-
scribe the persons passing the money.

~-peaa

The U. S. agents now began to ferret

out a description of the man who owned
the section near Beaumont. He was tall,
slim and very dignified. One of the neigh-
bours said he thought he was a political
refugee from Russia.

Other information regarding this re-
markable character came in. He was said to
be an accomplished linguist and a very
talented musician. Those who had seen him
said he was young, not more than 28 years
old, with an aristocratic bearing.

U. S. Secret Service men are not much
impressed by suave gentlemen. Their files
are filled with cases wherein the smoothest
workers of all were gentlemen, suave,
polished men of the world. The more ac-
complishments they possessed the more were
they liable to be suspected. These men,
by a quirk of their brains, became the most
dangerous criminals. They moved in un-
questioned society and worked their various
games on those who practically protected
them by their respectability. Who, the
average person would ask, could ever sus-
pect so and so who was a close friend of

so and so? Who indeed? The Secret Ser-

vice had an answer for that.
Now that they had their teeth into a
reasonable suspect the agents went to work

SIGURDSON MILLWORK
COMPANY LIMITED

Operating Western Canada’s Largest
Modern Woodworking Factory

ARCHITECTURAL WOODWORK
SASH and DOORS

1275 West Sixth Ave.

Vancouver, B. C.

Telephone FA irmont-0221

Exclusive Ambulance Service

Phone FAirmont 0080

Nunn & Thomson

Directors of Funeral Service

2559 Cambie Street

WINTER EDITION

Vancouver, B.C.

Station and Office:
13th Avenue and Heather Street, Vancouver, B. C.

We Specialize in Ambulance Service Only

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