The Half Million Bribe

When the body of Col. S.F. Hargraves was found in a room in the rear of Cradelbaughs, a gambling house, with a bullet in his heart, the police found "Big Jim" Pemmican, the manager of the place, coolly pacing the floor when they arrived. Jim demanded that the district attorney be informed. When District Attorney Murgatroyd arrived Pemmican led the way to a lounging room where stretched full length upon a couch was J. Lawrence Challoner, a young clubman, in a drunken stupor. "He is the man who murdered the Colonel," Pemmican told the district attorney, who aroused the clubman and began questioning him. While Murgatroyd was telephoning his office for an assistant, and Pemmican was directing the arrangement of overturned furniture in the main gambling room, Challoner manager to make his escape. A city-wide search for Challoner was ordered by the district attorney, but no trace was found of him. Challoner had intended to go home to his wife, but as he walked through the side streets realized that he would be walking into a trap, so he turned and made for the East Side, finally bringing up in a cheap lodging house off the Bowery The next day he telephoned his wife and asked her to bring his funds and said he intended leaving for Europe on a freight carrying steamship out of Philadelphia. She advised him against this and pleaded with him to give himself up. With her fortune of half a million dollars she could hire the best legal talent in the city for him, she pointed out. Murgatroyd was greatly surprised when he arrived at his office and found both Challoner and his wife waiting for him. She asked to speak with him alone, after Challoner had been turned over to an officer. In his private office Mrs. Challoner made a deal with Murgatroyd to the effect that he would clear her husband's name. For this he was to receive securities that she held valued at half a million dollars. At the trial both Challoner and his wife were amazed when Murgatroyd prosecuted the case in a vigorous manner. And while the trial was in progress he even spent one night with Challoner, giving him the "third degree," and finally obtaining a confession from him. This confession was introduced at the trial the following day, and together with Pemmican's testimony and the testimony of a maid, who had heard Challoner and Hargraves quarreling in Letty Love's apartment, made a case that convinced the jury of Challoner's guilt. Challoner followed Murgatroyd into his office and threatened to expose