Maybe he was using one of those...

Maybe he was using one of those cleansers that makes dirt just disappear . . . and it gave him an idea.

Whatever the inspiration, minimum-security jail inmate Wagner T. Huber was swabbing the floors with the rest of his custodial work crew at the old Hall of Justice early Tuesday when he disappeared, too--just up and left.

“Apparently,” Deputy Roger Hom said, “he decided to make that mad dash for freedom.”

We are not talking, in Sherlock Holmes’ phrase, about the Napoleon of Crime.

Consider: Huber was a minimum-security inmate, jailed for misdemeanor possession of fraudulent checks and set to be released at the very latest on June 28, perhaps sooner.

But escape is a felony, and it ups the stakes considerably from a few bad checks. Said Hom, “He’s got a lot more to lose now than before.”

In cop parlance, BOLO--be on the lookout--for a 24-year-old, blond, blue-eyed, 6-foot, 2-inch guy dressed tastefully in a jumpsuit of luna-moth green, with LA COUNTY JAIL stenciled across the back.

Ever notice that the scales of justice look like the astrological sign Libra?

Comes now the FBI--at least some of its files--showing that Carroll Righter, the astrologer to the stars and friend to Ronald and Nancy Reagan, was apparently investigated by that august agency, evidently after Reagan became President.

Righter died last April, and the Pittsburgh Press, under the Freedom of Information Act, has obtained heavily edited FBI documents indicating that Righter, a one-time Philadelphia attorney, was investigated on an unnamed “national defense” matter and interviewed by G-men here in L.A. before the case was closed.

Reagan, in his 1965 autobiography, wrote that Righter was a “good friend” and “every morning, Nancy and I turn to see what he has to say about people of our respective birth signs.”

Tom Pierson, Righter’s associate and president of the Carroll Righter Astrological Foundation, can’t say for sure, but “I suppose the FBI wanted to know what matters were discussed in regard to national defense, or whether the questions Reagan had were personal or social.”

And what might Mr. Righter have told the FBI? “Mr. Righter would never acknowledge anything he discussed with Ronald Reagan . . . it was none of their business.”

Kirk Douglas traveled to Skid Row on Tuesday to deliver a brief pep talk at the Los Angeles Mission, and, predictably, a press release enumerated the “photo opportunities.” A phalanx of television cameramen lined the back of the room and numerous still photographers snapped and snapped and snapped.

But if the hoopla was disconcerting to outsiders, it apparently did nothing to dilute Douglas’ message to the 250 homeless men and women who crowded together to hear him.

“It’s a great inspiration to us,” said Dwight Jackson, who explained that his life was devastated by a cocaine habit. “To look at where he rose up to, it’s very encouraging.”

“I know what it’s like to be without food, I know what it’s like to be in the Bowery. . . . You don’t forget those things,” said the 72-year-old actor, who wrote of his impoverished roots in his best-selling autobiography, “The Ragman’s Son.”

Douglas, who became acquainted with the mission while making the 1986 film “Tough Guys,” praised its rehabilitation efforts, saying homeless people need a “second chance,” not just “a handout and a bed.”

Isaac Rim Jr., an unemployed hospital orderly living on the streets, said Douglas’ message “makes me feel more hopeful.”

“It was very important what he said: Never forget where you came from.”