l guy named Medderbrook give
me a meal and a ticket to the big show. It was a performance _de
luxe_, so to say. Special attraction, bo. You'd have laughed your head
off. This here Syrilla Fat Lady got married to the Living Skeleton in
the middle ring, and she had the Snake Charmer for a bridesmaid. Say!
you'd have laughed--"

But Mr. Gubb did not laugh. He never laughed again.

PHILO GUBB'S GREATEST CASE

Philo Gubb, wrapped in his bathrobe, went to the door of the room that
was the headquarters of his business of paper-hanging and decorating
as well as the office of his detective business, and opened the door a
crack. It was still early in the morning, but Mr. Gubb was a modest
man, and, lest any one should see him in his scanty attire, he peered
through the crack of the door before he stepped hastily into the hall
and captured his copy of the "Riverbank Daily Eagle." When he had
secured the still damp newspaper, he returned to his cot bed and
spread himself out to read comfortably.

It was a hot Iowa morning. Business was so slack that if Mr. Gubb had
not taken out his set of eight varieties of false whiskers daily and
brushed them carefully, the moths would have been able to devour them
at leisure.

P. Gubb opened the "Eagle." The first words that met his eye caused
him to sit upright on his cot. At the top of the first column of the
first page were the headlines.

MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF HENRY SMITZ

Body Found In Mississippi River By Boatman Early This A.M.

Foul Play Suspected

Mr. Gubb unfolded the paper and read the item under the headlines with
the most intense interest. Foul play meant the possibility of an
opportunity to put to use once more the precepts of the Course of
Twelve Lessons, and with them fresh in his mind Detective Gubb was
eager to undertake the solution of any mystery that Riverbank could
furnish. This was the article:--

Just as we go to press we receive word through Policeman
Michael O'Toole that the well-known mussel-dredger and
boatman, Samuel Fliggis (Long Sam), while dredging for
mussels last night just below the bridge, recovered the body
of Henry Smitz, late of this place.

Mr. Smitz had been missing for three days and his wife had
been greatly worried. Mr. Brownson, of the Brownson Packing
Company, by whom he was employed, admitted that Mr. Smitz
had been missing for several days.

The body was foun