The Mystery Megapack

Tham,” everybody else did the same.
    Some time since, Detective Craddock had resolved to “get” Thubway Tham. He had been honest enough to inform Tham of his determination, and between detective and dip there was a constant duel in which Craddock continually found himself the loser. Failure only whetted the appetite of the detective to take Thubway Tham in, however.
    And now Detective Craddock looked through the window of the little cigar store, amazed. For Thubway Tham was inside and not purchasing a package of cigarettes or begging for a box of matches. Thubway Tham was behind the counter, waiting on trade.
    Detective Craddock waited until there came a time when no customers were in the little shop, and then entered and stepped up to the counter. He grinned at Thubway Tham, but Tham’s face expressed only the fact that he was a business man.
    “What’s the big idea?” Craddock wanted to know.
    “I fail to grathp you,” Thubway Tham told him.
    “You do, eh? Try again. You grasp me, all right. What’s the big idea of masquerading as an honest working man?”
    “That ith what I am,” Tham replied.
    “Yes?”
    “Yeth! And don’t you come around here pethterin’ me, either. I’ve got an honetht job, and I don’t want to be bothered.”
    “There’s something awfully fishy about this,” Craddock said, “I haven’t much faith in your reformation, Tham.”
    “No?”
    “No! If it’s a new game, Tham, old boy, I’ll land you sooner or later.”
    “There you go! Justht becauthe once I wath thent up the river, you think I am alwayth goin’ to be a crook! You don’t give a man a chance, you copth!”
    “No? Cut out the comedy, Tham. It doesn’t impress me at all.”
    “The only way to impreth you would be with a brick againtht the bean!” Tham told him.
    “Does your employer know you are a crook?”
    “He knoth I wath once in prithon, if that ith what you mean.” Tham said. “He thaid he wath ready to help a man get on the thraight path again.”
    “Very kind of him,” Craddock commented.
    “And if you pethter me, there’ll be a howl! I’m thtraight, and you got to let me alone!”
    Craddock purchased a cigar and stepped aside to light it as another customer entered. He stood back in a corner and watched Tham handle the customer. Presently he got the chance to speak to him once more.
    “Go right ahead, Tham, old boy,” he said. “But don’t forget that I’ll have an eye on you. This thing is a puzzle to me, but I’ll work it out.”
    “I jutht dethided to be thraight,” Tham complainingly told him. “I’m goin’ to be honetht and work for my livin’. Every perthon hath an inthane moment now and then. Maybe thith ith my inthane moment.”
    “There’s sure something crazy about it,” said Craddock.
    The detective left the store, watched from the corner for a time, and then went about his business. He could not hope to catch Thubway Tham picking pockets while he was working behind the counter of a cigar store.
    THAM GRINNED after Craddock had gone down the street and then gave his entire attention to the trade. It was the first day on duty, and he wanted to impress his boss, who would be coming in soon from the wholesale house. It might have been an insane moment, but Thubway Tham was enjoying it hugely, the more so because his actions mystified Detective Craddock.
    He sold a package of cigarettes to an evil-looking youth and changed a five-dollar bill. Ten minutes later his employer, going through the cash register, found the bill and informed Thubway Tham that it was a counterfeit.
    “Thtung!” Thubway Tham said. “I mutht be a thimp! I’ve got to thtand good for it, I thuppothe.”
    “You have,” said his employer.
    “I’ll get thquare with that man, you can bet. I remember his fathe. I’ll get him, all right!”
    Thubway Tham was of a mind that it was a reflection on his cleverness to be stung like that. Were they playing him for an “easy mark” on his first day on the job, he wondered. He had agreed to work for fifteen dollars a week, and here was a third of his week’s wages gone the first two hours on the job.
    Thubway Tham put the counterfeit bill in his vest pocket and went about his business. During the noon hour he found little time to think of anything except selling cigars and tobacco. Then he went to luncheon, and was not pleased to discover that Detective Craddock was watching him closely.
    Thubway Tham had an hour, and luncheon took but