The Conspirators
By Arthur B. Reeve
Now, what did that mean? Was it merely a useless circumstance, or did it contain a clue?
In the hope of securing some light on the problem presented by this simple piece of burlap, Burns visited a great number of places. Among them were the wholesale dry-goods houses that cluster in the region of Worth Street in New York. They told him of several commodities that were marked with the double X as a brand. The “64” was a different matter. That might refer to something else. The double X, for instance, was used for shirts. There was also a chance that the burlap might have been used as a covering for shipments of overalls.
Burns visited several overall manufacturers, and finally, at Newburgh, New York, he found the factory from which the shipment had been made. So far, so good. But it seemed like hunting for a needle in a haystack to discover just where the shipment had gone. The manufacturer said it would be impossible. Burns kept doggedly on his path; and in a few hours, by examining order-book after order-book, he was able to determine what the factory manager had said was impossible. He found the destination of those overalls. They had been bought by a little dry goods store in Long Island City.
Burns went straight to the little dry-goods store and asked if they could sell him some burlap. There were piles of it in the cellar; they were glad to get rid of it.
Confidentially he explained to the shipping clerk, when they reached the basement, that he did not want any burlap, after all. He had enough of it in that piece which bore the tell-tale marks. But could the clerk remember selling any within the past few months to anyone who had come to him with a similar tale? The clerk thoughtfully scratched the side of his nose. Yes, he did remember. An old lady with gray hair, dressed in mourning, with gold-rimmed spectacles, had bought some.
Genre: Thriller | Short Story
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Arthur B. Reeve
Arthur Benjamin Reeve (October 15, 1880 – August 9, 1936) was an American mystery writer.
Biography.
He is known best for creating the series character Professor Craig Kennedy, sometimes called “The American Sherlock Holmes”, and Kennedy’s Dr. Watson-like sidekick Walter Jameson, a newspaper reporter, for 18 detective novels. Reeve is famous mostly for the 82 Craig Kennedy stories, published in Cosmopolitan magazine between 1910 and 1918. These were collected in book form; with the third collection, the short stories were published and grouped as episodic novels. The 12-volume publication Craig Kennedy Stories was released in 1918; it reissued Reeve’s books-to-date as a matched set. Born in Brooklyn, Reeve graduated from Princeton and attended New York Law School.
He worked as an editor and journalist before acquiring fame from the first Craig Kennedy story in 1911. Raised in Brooklyn, he lived most of his professional life at various addresses near Long Island Sound. In 1932, he relocated to New Jersey (Trenton) to be nearer his alma mater, Princeton. He died in Trenton in 1936. Starting with The Exploits of Elaine (1914), Reeve began authoring screenplays. His movie career was the most productive during 1919-20 when his name was credited for seven movies, most of them serials, three of them featuring Harry Houdini. After that—- probably because the movie industry migrated to Hollywood and Reeve’s desire to remain in the East—- Reeve worked more sporadically with movies. He published much fiction originally in newspapers, and a variety of magazines including Boys’ Life, Country Gentleman, and Everybody’s Magazine. Eventually, he was published only in pulps like Detective Fiction Weekly and Detective Story Magazine.
In 1927, Reeve contracted with (John S. Lopez) to write a series of movie scenarios for the notorious millionaire-murderer, Harry K. Thaw, on the subject of fake spiritualists. The deal resulted in a lawsuit when Thaw refused to pay. In late 1928, Reeve declared bankruptcy. During the 1930s, Reeve changed his career by becoming an anti-racket crusader. He hosted a national radio program from July 1930 to March 1931, published a history of the rackets titled The Golden Age of Crime, and the emphasis of his Craig Kennedy stories completed Reeve’s transition from “scientific detective” work to combating organized crime. During his career, Reeve reported many celebrated crime cases for various newspapers, including the murder of William Desmond Taylor in 1922, and the trial of Lindbergh’s baby kidnapper, Bruno Hauptmann, who was executed in 1936.
Arthur B. Reeve
