OLD EMPRESS MOTEL

Fully Licensed

LOUIE ROSS, Proprietor

Prince Rupert, B.C.

and even the barkeeper joined in consoling
him.

“You ain’t insured, are you?” he asked
Georgie. :

Georgie had been accepting the condoling
drinks of his friends, but up to that moment
they had apparently the effect of plunging
him only deeper into misery. But at the
barkeeper’s question a startled look came
into his eyes, then the dawning of relief.

“What a fool I am!” he cried. “If I
didn’t go and forget all about it! Friends,
I am insured! I forgot that I was. It ain’t
much; I’m a poor man, I am; but if those
insurance compan‘es don’t cheat me out of
what’s due me, I may get enough to start
business again.

“But do you think those rich companies
will do right by a poor man and pay him
for the loss of his business? I know I done
right by them and paid for my policy!”

“Of course they'll pay you!” the bar-
keeper assured him.

And of course the insurance company
paid Georgie Hamp the sum for which his

With Compliments

NORTH STAR CLUB

oe
PRINCE RUPERT B. C.

rag shop was insured. It was not a muni
ficent sum: $1000 was all that the fire
brought Georgie Hamp and his associates.
The money was divided up at a dinner held
in the cottage where Georgie first met his
confederates. The division was made ac-
cording to a varying scale, in which Cullmer
got the lion’s share and Terry the next larg-
est portion — which Loney secretly be-
grudged him. Loney himself received about
15 per cent of the insurance money. The
remainder was divided among the other
members of the gang who, while they had
nothing to do with that particular fire, were
engaged in various stages of preparing simi
lar fires.

At first glance this gang would seem to
be engaged in a retail business of small pro-
portions. Indeed, during the 13 years Lon-
don had been afflicted with similar fires, the
losses to the insurance companies never had
been much in any single instance.

Yet this ring had already burned down
over 700 houses, shops and homes, always
collecting full insurance. And with a vanity

understandable of these people, they proudly
wore the visible badge of their success—the
little silver pin with its background of red
enamel and the initials “G. L. F. R.” The
Great London Fire Ring they called them
selves; later the public found the name none
too pretentious.

Loney developed into an excellent “crow”
one who arranged the fires—and who re-
mained in the neighbourhood to see that
they did their intended damage. At the same
time it was his job to arrange for just such
an alibi as the drinking session staged at
the hour when his first fire took place. Had
any suspicion arisen that he had set fire to
his place himself, he could point to his
presence in the ale house in refutation.

So efficient was the technique of the arson
band that it was fully two years before
Loney encountered his first mishap, which
gave him and the gang a bad scare. He had
rented the ground floor of a house in a
working class neighbourhood, as usual. This
time he was supposed to be a house painter
living alone.

When in Town Visit the

SMILES CAFE

HE POMS OF BETTER ROODSs

COW BAY

Prince Rupert, B. C.

Telephones—Store: 760 - 764

P.O. Box 264

EACH FOR ALL

Prince Rupert

ALL FOR EACH

Office: 763

Fishermen's Co-operative Agsoriation

PRODUCERS OF QUALITY FISH

Prince Rupert, B. C.

Page Seventy-four

THE SHOULDER STRAP