Johnston McCulley

“ Thubway Tham had decided that his first duty was to lose Detective Craddock. He disliked Elmer, but wished to show him that he, Thubway Tham, was as far above the elevated dip as the stars above the earth, when it came to being a professional pickpocket.
Tham hurried up Sixth Avenue through the crowds, now and then flinching a bit when an elevated train roared by overhead. Every train that passed made more firm his determination to win over Elmer. The fame of his beloved subway was at stake in a way, he had decided. He’d show Elmer! ”

“ Suddenly Thubway Tham darted up the stairs.
For the second time that day he bought a ticket for the elevated. He rushed to the platform just in time to spring aboard a train, and he turned and grinned at Craddock, who was just too late to get aboard. Well, he had escaped for the time being. Then horror came to him!
Craddock and the police knew that there was a clever pickpocket working on the elevated. And he, like a fool, had taken the elevated before Craddock’s eyes, when all the underworld knew that he hated the structure above the ground. ”

“ He wanted to follow Elevated Elmer, watch him work, and square accounts, but he did not care, as much as he disliked Elmer, to lead Detective Craddock to him and have Elmer arrested. For word certainly then would go forth that Thubway Tham had fallen from grace and was hand in glove with the police. Thubway Tham would find himself ostracized afterward. All his friends would desert him; every man and woman of the underworld would look upon him with suspicion. ”