Free John Fitzgerald GB 06 Return of by Return of the Great Brain

telegram we sent to the Bruford Brothers. They don’t keep a record of the serial numbers themselves. But they did say it has been company policy for the cattle buyers themselves to keep a list of serial numbers since two o( them were robbed. But . - -” he didn’t finish the sentence, just shrugged helplessly.
    “But what?” Tom asked.
    “Your uncle removed all personal effects from the clothing Simpson was wearing before the body was shipped to Kansas City,” Sheriff Baker said. “He did not find any list. After receiving the telegram your uncle and I searched Simpson’s satchel and suitcase which we are holding for Mr. Perkins to take back to Kansas City. We didn’t find any list of serial numbers.”
    “Then what happened to it?” Tom asked.
    “My guess is that Simpson just forgot to make out a list of the serial numbers,” Sheriff Baker said.
    Just then Papa came into the office holding a telegram and looking excited. “I sent a copy of the Advocate with the story of the train robbery and murder to the editor of the Hanksville Bugle,” he said. “I knew Cassidy and his gang make Hanksville a sort of second home and thought the editor would be interested in knowing Cassidy had been identified as the man who killed Simpson. I just received this telegram from the editor. He wired me that Cassidy was seen in Hanksville the day of the train robbery by several people including himself.”
    Papa handed the telegram to Sheriff Baker who read it
     
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    and then handed it to Uncle Mark to read.
    “This,” Uncle Mark said, “makes a liar out of Sam Ludell. I think our best bet is to arrest Ludell and see if we can’t get a confession out of him on the strength of this telegram and him spending Kansas City bank notes.”
    Sheriff Baker shook his head. “Ludell is a cool customer,” he said. “He has to be or he couldn’t be a blackjack dealer. He can always say the outlaw looked like Cassidy. And the bank notes mean nothing without the serial numbers.”
    “We have no choice,” Uncle Mark said. “We’ve got to arrest Ludell before Saturday. Perkins will be in town buy-ing cattle, and Adenville will be flooded with Kansas City bank notes by Saturday night.”
    Tom had been sitting with wrinkles in his forehead and concentrating with his great brain so hard that he wasn’t even listening. Papa stared at him.
    “What’s on your mind, T.D.?” he asked.
    Tom didn’t answer. Just sat there. I nudged him with my elbow.
    “Papa asked you a question,” I said.
    Tom blinked his eyes and then looked at our father. “I’m sorry, Papa,” he said. “I was thinking.”
    “I know that look on your face,” Papa said. “What were you thinking?”
    Tom looked at Sheriff Baker. “Let Papa read that telegram from the Bruford Brothers about their cattle buyers keeping a list of serial numbers,” he said.
    Tom waited until Papa had read the telegram. “What kind of a man was Mr. Simpson?” he asked. “I mean was he a conscientious kind of man?”
    “I’ve known Paul Simpson for about a dozen years,”
     
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    Papa said. “I would say he was a very conscientious man. Why do you ask?”
    “Because if Mr. Simpson was a conscientious man,” Tom said, “and knew it was company policy to keep a list of the serial numbers of bank notes he was carrying, then he must have made a list. Maybe he didn’t want to carry the list on his person in case robbers searched him. Maybe he didn’t want to put the list in his satchel or suitcase in case robbers took them believing he might have more money in them. My great brain has figured out there was only one way Mr. Simpson could make sure nobody but him ever got that list of serial numbers.”
    Uncle Mark and Sheriff Baker came up from their chairs as we stared at Tom.
    Tom stood up. “The only way Mr. Simpson could make sure,” Tom said, “was to mail the list to himself at the Sheepmen’s Hotel. Did you ask if there was any mail tor him at the