or garden thing of rubber!

"Good-day, gents!" said the boss, putting the check in his
wallet. "I've got to get busy with the rubber stamp makers!"

He returned to his office and detailed a dozen men to work on
the East Side and a dozen on the West Side, with orders to
search out every man in New York who manufactured rubber
stamps. Before the end of the afternoon the maker was found
on the Bowery, near Houston Street. This was his story: A
couple of weeks before, a young man had come in and ordered a
certification stamp, drawing at the time a rough design of
what he wanted. The stamp, when first manufactured, had not
been satisfactory to him; and on his second visit, the
customer had left a piece of a check, carefuly torn out in
circular form, which showed the certification which he
desired copied. This fragment the maker had retained,
as well as a slip of paper, upon which the customer had
written the address of the place to which he wished the stamp
sent--The Young Men's Christian Association! The face of the
fragment showed a part of the maker's signature. The
superintendent ran his eye over a list of brokers and picked
out the name of the firm most like the hieroglyphics on the
check. Then he telephoned over and asked to be permitted to
see their pay roll. Carefully comparing the signature
appearing thereon with the Y.M.C.A. slip, he picked his man
in less than ten minutes.

The latter was carefully trailed to his home, and thence to
the Young Men's Christian Association, after which he called