A large automobile in which were five men drew up before the Grand Street ferryhouse of the Broadway Ferry to Brooklyn a little before noon yesterday. The three men in the tonneau and the fourth beside the chauffeur kept their eyes carefully upon a pile of bags in the tonneau, while the chauffeur, opening the machine's hood, began fumbling in the whirring interior. From the muffler came a series of sputtering explosions as some of the cylinders missed fire. Finally the machine stopped, to move no more without a tow. The chauffeur called to a policeman.

“I want some help,” he said.

“Sure,” said the policeman; “try your spark.”

“That's not it,” said another of the men. “We've got $300,000 here in gold belonging to the State Bank, in Grand Street, that we are taking to the Brownsville branch of the State Bank, and this machine won't run. We want a guard until we can get another.”

So for half an hour Policemen Horan and Corber sat in the automobile with the $300,000, while autoists worked the telephone. Although a block of traffic on the Williamsburg bridge sent more than the usual number of passengers and vehicles to the ferryhouse, no one paid any attention to the disabled auto with its two policemen and load of wealth.

Meanwhile Police Headquarters and the Delancey Street Station had received telephone messages from a voice which said it was that of Manager Roth of the State Bank, telling of the stranding at the ferry of a million dollars. Other policemen were sent from the Delancey Street Station, but when they arrived there they found that the money had been transferred to another automobile and had gone on its way.

The State Bank denied all knowledge of the incident.