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No one dared asked a senator traveling without his hoht Even the ferry captain, a veteran North River waterh to explain that a Van Dorn detective dressed like a deckhand had barged into his wheelhouse and drawn from his wallet a railroad pass unlike any he had ever seen The docues of the line that exceeded even that of a senator who voted religiously in favor of legislation the railroads approved Handwritten and signed and sealed by the president of the line, and witnessed by a federal judge, it superseded all dispatchers Its only limits were common sense and the rules of safety

“What did you do to get that pass?” the captain had asked as he hurriedly signaled the engine rooines

“The president returned a favor,” had said the detective “And I always tell the president how kindly I am treated by his employees”

So the captain told the legislator, “A mechanical breakdown, Senator”

“How the devil long are we going to wait here?”

“Everyone is dise” The captain seized the senator’s valise and led hihere cold-faced detectives observed every passenger trooping off

Isaac Bell stood behind the other Van Dorns, watching over their heads each and every face Theaboard at the last instant-made it clear that the shadows had slipped up, and the Japanese spy kneas being followed Noas a chase

Three hundred eighty passengers, men, woht Bell, it was the ht The boats carried thousands at rush hour

“That’s the last of them”

“OK Noe check every nook and cranny on the boat He’s hiding somewhere”

A SMALL, elderly wo black dress, a warm shawl, and a straw bonnet tied to her head with a dark scarf boarded a streetcar outside the Jersey City Exchange Place Terminal It was a slow, stop-and-start ride to the city of Hoboken The trolley looped around the square at Ferry and River streets, and now her journey moved swiftly as she descended to the first coht-car electric train so new it smelled of paint

It whisked her under the Hudson River Ten , she left the tube train at the first station in New York The conductors operating the air-powered doors exchanged a glance The neighborhood at Christopher and Greenwich streets above the beautifully lighted vaulted ceilings of the tube line was nowhere near as pleasant as the subterranean station, particularly at such a late hour Before they could call a warning, the woman hurried past a pretty florist’s shop at the foot of the stairs-closed, with lights still shining on the flowers-and disappeared

At street level she found a dark square of grienteel residences long since partitioned into roo who followed her, drawing close as she neared an alley She whirled suddenly, pressed a small pistol to his forehead, and said in a softhad never heard before, “I can pay you handsoht Or I can pull the trigger I will let you choose”

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I HAVE A JOB FOR HARRY WING AND LOUIS LOH,” SAID Eyes O’Shay