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“Not on my watch,” said Isaac Bell

“In fact,” Abbott persisted “If there were an explosion, hoould we knoas the Wrecker and not a Jersey harebrain?”

“We’ll know If he est explosion New York has ever seen”

Accordingly, Bell had stationed railway police on every train and boat and freight wagon owned by the Southern Pacific He backed them up with Van Dorn operatives and inspectors borrowed from the Bureau of Explosives, newly founded by the railroads to prounpowder, and TNT

Every man carried the lumberjack’s sketch Bell’s hopes for it had been bolstered by a report on the Ogden disaster from Nicolas Alexander, the self-important head of the Denver office, who, despite his flaws, happened to be an able detective Soht Wally Kisley and Mack Fulton out deliberately to attack Van Dorn agents But Alexander had confirmed Bell’s initial conclusion that Wally and Mack had pursued the Wrecker down an alley Which nized him from the sketch And the by-now-familiar sword-puncture wounds left no doubt the Wrecker had killed them with his own hand

“My friend,” said Archie, “you’re worrying too much We have every base covered We’ve been at it a week Not a peep out of the Wrecker The boss is tickled pink”

Bell knew that Joseph Van Dorn would not be tickled entirely pink until they arrested the Wrecker or shot him dead But it was true that the powerful Van Dorn presence had already had the wonderful side effect of apprehending various cristeras a Jersey Central railroad detective, a trio of bank robbers, and a corrupt Fire Coerous practice of storing dyna in the winter cold

The powder pier worried Bell the h it swarmed with railroad police Isolated as far as possible from the main piers, it was still too close in Bell’s opinion And asdyna no chances, Bell had put in coent Eddie Edwards, who kneell the rail yards, the docks, and the local gangs

WONG LEE WALKED TO the Communipaw piers, his tiny frae laundry sack A railroad detective looht he was going

“Chop-chop, laundry for captain,” Wong answered in the pidgin English that he knew the detective expected of him

“What ship?”

Deliberatelythe /s and rs, he na bones for fertilizer, and the cop let him pass

But when he got to the barque where Polish day laborers were unloading the reeking cargo, he plodded past and cliplank to a battered two-masted schooner in the lumber trade

“Hey, chink?” shouted the ?”

“Captain Yatkowski, chop-chop, clothes”