The Mystery Megapack

drew down fabulous salaries and were likely to carry the cash around with them. So he decided that the roll of Booth Mansfield Merton would be worth appropriating. Aside from that, Tham wanted to get the roll as a matter of revenge against the man who sa’id such high and lofty things against the under dogs at every performance.
    But it did not seem that he would have his chance. Merton continued to parade the rialto, chatting with an acquaintance now amd then, and Tham saw him flash the big roll half a dozen times Thubway Tham was almost frantic now. He could think of nothing except the roll of bills. He ignored the rush hour, and all chances to “lift a leather.” For the time being, Thubway Tham had one big important job in sight, and nothing could decoy him from it.
    III.
    “I MUTHT get that roll,” Tham told himself, for the hundredth time since he had seen it first. “Live downtown to thtu the animalth, will he? Huh! Viciouth ignorance, hey?”
    Late in the afternoon Booth Mansfield Merton parted from another acquaintance and started for a subway entrance. Thubway Tham followed like a bloodhound on a trail. Tham felt that his time had come at last. He had seen Merton return that roll to the side pocket of his coat, and he knew it still. was there. And Merton was going into the subway!
    Merton caught a downtown express, and Thubway Tham squeezed into the car immediately behind him. This time the actor was forced to stand, and Tham bored his way through the crowd in an effort to get by his prospective victim’s side.
    Tham glanced around the car, slowly, carefully, and saw nobody he knew. He would use his usual method, Tham decided. He would wait until the train pulled into a station, and just before it pulled out again he would get Merton’s roll, dart through the door, and hurry to the street above.
    Tham did not deem the moment propitious when the first station was reached. An elderly woman, half bewildered, was hurrying to leave the train and attracting the attention of everybody in the car toward the spot where Tham and Merton stood.
    But a station more or less made little difference to Thubway Tham. It was the outcome that interested him. He wanted to get that roll, and do it successfully, and he cared nothing for time.
    The train dashed on. Tham decided that the next station would be the proper place. He edged forward until he was brushing against Booth Mansfield Merton, and placed himself in such a position that he could slip his hand into Merton’s pocket and get the roll in the proper manner. As a last precaution, he glanced around the car again.
    And he caught sight of Detective Craddock, who had been watching him carefully, and who now allowed an expression of annoyance to cross his countenance. Tham turned away and grinned. Craddock almost had caught him; it was a fortunate thing that he looked around at the last moment. Craddock, who knew pickpockes, had guessed that Tham had picked Merton for a victim.
    Tham left the car when the train stopped, left it slowly and without brushing against Merton again. Craddock followed him to the street.
    “Well, old-timer,” Craddock said, “I almost had you that time.”
    “Thir?”
    “Don’t come any of that stuff on me, now. You had your little victim picked, all right, and you hadn’t seen me at first. If you hadn’t happened to look around when you did, you’d have pulled off a stunt, and then I’d nabbed you with the goods. But I’ll get you yet, Tham.”
    “Are you an utter ath?” Tham demanded. “What are you talkin’ about, Craddock? I wath intendin’ to do nothin’ of the thort. I wath jutht gettin’ ready to get off.”
    “I know what you were getting ready to do,” Craddock said with a sneer.
    He glared at Tham and went on down the street. And Thubway Tham, angry and chagrined, went to a restaurant for his evening meal, and then went back uptown again, intending to be at the stage door when Merton left the theater that night.
    “I’ll get that roll of hith if it taketh me a dothen yearth,” Tham declared to himself. “When it cometh to bein’ perthithtent, I am a medal winner.”
    Tham arrived uptown again about nine o’clock that night, and walked around Times Square, glancing at his watch now and then. He would see Booth Mansfield Merton come from the theater, he would trail him well, and if Merton traveled downtown in the subway, he would get that roll of bills, providing Merton still had it. Tham was half afraid