Adventures of Thubway Tham by Johnston McCulley & John Betancourt

Author:Johnston McCulley & John Betancourt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: zorro, mystery, sleuth, pickpocket, detective, series
Publisher: Wildside Press
Published: 2011-05-26T00:00:00+00:00

THUBWAY THAM’S CURIOTHITY

Unobtrusively, and as inconspicuously as possible you may be sure, Thubway Tham left the busy street and descended the crowded stairs into the subway at Times Square.

Hugging the wall, Thubway Tham slipped along it quietly, as though begging the pardon of his fellow men for cumbering the fair earth with his unworthy presence. Thubway Tham possessed to a superior degree the faculty of effacing himself when he wished to do so—a faculty worth more than its weight in gold or precious gems to a professional dip.

It was the rush hour in the subway. The platform, when Thubway Tham finally reached it, was thronged and crowded and jammed with human beings who appeared to be running around in circles, each intent upon getting to some mysterious destination in record-breaking time and with the least possible delay.

Thubway Tham crowded close to the edge of the platform and there waited for a downtown express. He wore an old gray suit and a cap to match, and the latter was pulled down well over his eyes, pulled down to just the point where Thubway Tham could peer beneath the visor and take stock of his immediate neighbors. In appearance, Thubway Tham was a poor, downtrodden, tired employee of some fourth-rate mercantile establishment, and would pass for such in a crowd.

Owing to the inordinate and unusual activity of the metropolitan police department, Thubway Tham had conducted himself as an honest and law-abiding citizen for more than a week. He had not attempted to lift a leather in all that time, and for the greater part had been content to roam around the city’s streets and enjoy the ever-changing sights.

Some seventh sense always seemed to inform Thubway Tham when it would be perilous for him to follow his nefarious profession and when the chances for success were excellent. Thubway Tham, it was well known to his friends and acquaintances, always “played a hunch” and never disregarded one.

The express roared into the station, and Thubway Tham was the first person to enter one of the cars, which already was crowded with humanity. He took up a position in the aisle not far from one of the doors.

He glanced around quickly and alertly, but in such a manner that others would not observe his close scrutiny of his fellow passengers. There were two reasons for this— Tham wanted to make sure that no officer of the law stood near him, and he was looking for a possible victim.

Satisfied that no detective or plain-clothes man was in his immediate vicinity, Tham searched for the victim and located one almost at once. Some six feet from him stood a medium-sized gentleman of rather prosperous appearance. He gave one the impression of being bored and disgusted because compelled to ride in the jam of common humanity. He was rather dignified, Thubway Tham thought. He was the sort of man who carries a fat wallet.

Thubway Tham, by no means a poor judge of the common run of human beings, told

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