abstract
| - Clarence Malmsey was a constable with the Royal American Mounted Police and based in the RAM's Upper California section HQ in New Liverpool. He was a tall, muscular Negro who was part of the RAM squads accompanying Colonel Thomas Bushell in his investigation of the theft of The Two Georges. Bushell had chosen him on the suggestion of his adjutant Captain Samuel Stanley. Stanley had suggested that there be at least one coloured officer present during any questioning of suspects. Since the Sons of Liberty hold non-whites in contempt, they may let slip something thinking that a black officer would not notice. Bushell had thought the idea devilishly clever and agreed. At Titus Hackett's and Franklin Mansfield's printing shop, Malmsey discovered an invoice for seven hundred gold roubles from the Queen Charlotte Islands Board of Tourism and an eight-by-ten glossy photograph of a Saxe-Coburg-Gotha prince's skinny, blond, estranged wife frolicking nearly in the altogether on a tropical beach, both in the same folder. The two printers had previously been acquitted of printing and distributing an obscene publication, a lampoon of the marital troubles of royalty. This looked like a follow-up but no incriminating evidence came up so no charges were laid. Later that day, the RAMs searched the apartment of Joseph Watkins. Malmsey tapped the wallboards of a closet with his nightstick looking for hidden spaces. One spot on the wall made a hollow thud. Malmsey pried off the board and pulled out a long, thin, rectangular package wrapped in thick brown paper for passage through the mails. It was postmarked Skidegate, Queen Charlotte Islands. Inside was a Nagant rifle, a Russian make.
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