Part 26

Brady, her husband, had gone the rounds with her. I searched every possible place in Boston, and engaged a detective there. I had been able to secure several photographs of the woman, and of her husband, in New York; and with one of these, the Boston detective was able to make her out, he thought, one day. He followed the woman, and at last abandoned the "game," when he found that she was in company with people of high character, and entered with them one of the finest residences in Vernon Street; and, moreover, was told by a servant of the house that she was a Mrs. "_Bradley_," from Portland, Me. He concluded that he was mistaken. We finally learned Brady was not like "Seymour," an assumed name, and that the husband had wealthy relatives in Boston; and then conceiving that the detective might not have been mistaken in supposing he recognized "Mrs. Seymour," we laid siege to the Vernon Street house, till we satisfied ourselves that "Mrs. Bradley" and "Mrs. Seymour" were one and the same. But how did she get there? Boston is full of people, in high rank, who are spiritualists, and who keep "mediums" for themselves, and do not visit the advertising mediums, to be found there in such numbers, even to this day.

We traced Brady out too, and found him a chief clerk in a house on Washington Street, in which his brother was a partner. My friend, the detective, made his acquaintance, and managed to learn from him that he was worth several thousand dollars. He had two building lots in New York, which he had bought for a song, some four years before, but which would be worth, he said, fifty thousand dollars in less than ten years. My friend, the detective, wished to buy these, and they got on such good terms that Brady, in the course of a few days, accepted his invitation to "go down to York," on his, the detective's, expense, and when there showed him the lots, and told him confidentially that they stood in his wife's name, as he had failed in business some years before.

We thought we had enough materials together to commence the attack, and my friend, the lawyer, managed to bring a suit in such a way that the building lots were attached, and then wrote me at Boston to "go ahead." I proceeded at once to the house in Vernon Street, and inquired for Mrs. Bradley. She had, meanwhile, moved her quarters to the residence of a distinguished clerical gentleman in Hancock Street, whose wife was a spiritualist, and a "medium" besides. I called upon Mrs. Bradley there, and having a private "seance" with her as a "medium," until I thought I had studied her enough, told her that I was very much pleased with the communication she had brought me from my "deceased wife" (who was then living in New York, one of the healthiest and jolliest women in the land, and likely to live, perhaps, till the "spirits" are all dead); and that now I had a communication to make to her; and that I did not wish to disturb her peace, or expose her conduct in life, and should not do so if she kept quiet. She wanted to know "what in the name of goodness" I talked to her in that way for. I told her it wasn't I that was talking, that I was only the "medium" through whom Mrs. Mary ---- (using the full name now), of New York, was speaking, and that she had come to ask her what she did with that little charm box, and its contents, for which she substituted the box of stones and iron.

"Mrs. Bradley," _alias_ "Seymour," turned pale as a sheet, and _tried_ to swoon. She was a little too quick in the play, and hadn't declared, as her true rôle was, that she didn't know what I meant; so she waked up, and declared it; and I told her to be tranquil; that we had got the property all attached; knew where the watch was, and had her properly identified on the day she bought the _two_ boxes at such and such a store. I looked her calmly in the eye while I said this; and she was not at a loss to discover that I knew what I was saying.

"Now madam," said I, "all that we want is, that you save us the trouble and time of a suit. We shall arrest you, and have you taken to New York, and tried criminally, as well as prosecute the civil suit, unless you are willing to settle the matter quietly; and I can't give you any time. An officer is awaiting my call close by here;" (indeed, he was in the porch of the house at the time) "and unless you are willing to get your bonnet and shawl, and accompany me at once to Mr. Brady, and settle this matter, we will arrest you, and take you where you'll be kept safe till we get a requisition for you from the governor of New York."

"Mrs. Seymour" had had, as I knew before, more or less to do with legal matters, and she saw the force of things at once. She accompanied me to the store where her husband was engaged, the officer following at a proper distance; and I managed to cool the husband's assumed wrath when I came to tell him of the charges against her, he asseverating her virtue and innocence in terms that savored of Milesian profanity.

"Mr. Brady," said I, "I am glad to see a man so brave a champion of his wife; but you are only making matters worse. _She_ don't deny the charges; the property is under attachment, and the officer is at hand, and she will be arrested in less than five minutes" (taking out my watch to look at the time), "unless you cool down and come to terms. You, too, know all about the business, and would probably prefer to escape arrest also--wouldn't you?"

He looked at me for an instant, then at his wife, and said,--

"Well, I suppose we'll have to give in for now; but I'll carry the matter under protest, up to the United States Supreme Court before I'll be trampled on."

This boast seemed to relieve him, and we all left the store and went to my friend's, the detective's, office on Tremont Street, where the preliminaries of a settlement were entered into. The watch we wanted back at any rate; the rest of the jewelry was scattered here and there, only that Mrs. Seymour had preserved a nice string of pearls, worth some three hundred dollars. There was not much "higgling" over the estimate of value of the various articles, and the two thousand in money, of course, went in at its value. In all, the bill footed up about thirty-six hundred and fifty dollars, besides five hundred--(which was too little)--for the expenses we had been at. Suffice it that those building lots in New York changed hands soon after, "in due legal form," and that a thousand dollars in money besides left Brady's pocket, and found its way where it could pay "expenses," etc. The building lots have sold since for far more than Brady's estimate of "fifty thousand dollars in ten years." The old gentleman and his wife Mary were delighted with my success: of course Mr. Hurlbut delivered up the watch for the price he paid for it, which it was proper he should ask, inasmuch too, as Brady had given us the money, or its equivalent for it, and more too, and Mrs. Mary said she should carry it till her dying day, "to ward off mediums and sorcerers, as the Puritans nailed horse-shoes to door-posts as protection against witches"; and I venture she's faithfully wearing it now for that purpose, and as a souvenir of the old gentleman, her good husband, who is now dead.

I was so much pleased with the cunning and skilful address of Mrs. Seymour, that I cultivated her acquaintance, and by a "close study" managed to learn a good deal of her art, and came to a knowledge of the great extent to which mediums are consulted by people of the first classes; and was astonished to find how readily they fall, through the superstitious element in their composition, victims to the sorcerer's arts. It would require volumes to cite the instances which occur yearly in New York city alone. Boston is not a whit behind in this, notwithstanding she boasts herself the Athens of America; but, perhaps, she so boasts because she worships so many different idols--has as many gods as the Greek mythology embraced. In proportion to her population her dupes of superstition are more numerous than those of New York.

THE DISHONEST CLERK, AND THE FATAL SLIP OF PAPER.

IN AN UGLY MOOD WITH MYSELF--A VISIT FROM A CINCINNATIAN--A LOSS DETAILED--THE FATE OF A BANKING-HOUSE RESTING ON "COLLATERALS" STOLEN, WHICH MUST BE RECOVERED--A LAWYER FIGURES IN THE MATTER AND IS BAFFLED--THE THIEVES SPECULATING FOR A SETTLEMENT--THE SCHEME LAID FOR THEIR DETECTION--A BUSINESS VISIT TO THE BANKING-HOUSE--THE CHIEF CLERK SENT TO CHICAGO ON BUSINESS--A SEARCH REVEALING LOVE LETTERS, AND A LOVELY LITERARY LADY--ON TRACK OF MYSTERIOUS "PAPERS"--THE FATAL SLIP OF PAPER--THE WAY THE STOLEN BONDS WERE RECOVERED--THE CHIEF CLERK, AND HOW HE WAS "ENLIGHTENED"--A NOVEL AND QUIET ARREST IN A CARRIAGE--THE CLERK'S CONFEDERATE CAUGHT--THE PROPERTY RESTORED--THE SCAMPS DECAMP--THE INNOCENT LITERARY LADY'S EYES OPENED.

I was sitting in my office one day, meditating over a case I had had in hand to work up, for some four months, off and on. An hour before one of the parties interested in the matter, and who had furnished considerable money to press the investigation of the affair had left my office in a state of dissatisfaction, evident enough to me, although his interest compelled him to express in words his pleasure at the course I had taken, and his hope that my theory of the case would soon be worked into practical demonstration. But I fancied, nevertheless, that he had secretly resolved to abandon the matter, or to abandon me, and procure some one else to undertake the job; and I was conjuring in my mind who this might be, whom he would secure to aid him; and resolving myself into a happy state of mind that this point, namely, that he could find nobody who could or would for the like slight encouragement I had had, undertake the affair, and into a somewhat unhappy state of mind on this other point, namely, that I had been induced to enter upon the work upon too slight amount of facts, and accusing myself of stupidity in so doing, I had resolved that I would never undertake a like case, involving so much work, with such little probability of success, for there are some things which may baffle the oldest detective's skill as surely as the simplest peasant's brain. I was in an ugly mood with myself, when there entered my office an excited looking man, who accosted me--"You are Mr. ----?"

"Yes, sir."

"The very man that worked up that case for Coe and Phillips, two years ago?"

"Yes, sir; I suppose I am _the_ man," said I, emphasizing the article "the;" "but what of it, what if I did?" said I, in a mood which I was conscious was not very attractive, and with a look, I suppose, not over-enticing, for the man "hitched" unpleasantly in his chair, and seemed confused. "What of it? Why do you ask?"

He still looked disconcerted, but taking from his pocket a file of papers, carefully thumbed them over, and drew out from them a letter of introduction to me from Mr. Coe, in which Mr. Coe said that his friend had an affair on hand in which he thought I could serve him, and he had commended me to his friend.

"Ah, you are a friend of Mr. Coe? Well, I see this note is dated over a month ago. Why have you delayed to bring it to me before?"

"O, I'll explain. I live in Cincinnati, and was here on business at the time, stopping at Mr. Coe's. I told him my story, got this note from him, and intended to see you in a day or two; but a telegram called me home,"--(or "telegraph message," as he said, for this was before the days when some happy genius coined the felicitous word "telegram"), "and I have come again on business, and so have brought the note."

"Is it in Cincinnati that I must work, if I enter upon the matter you may have to relate to me?"

"Yes, sir, I suppose so; in fact, yes, of course, for there the robbery was committed."

"O, a robbery, eh? Well, I don't think you had better tell me of it. It's too far away, and I have enough to do here; more than I wish I had of the kind which falls to my lot these days, and you can get detectives in Cincinnati who can afford to work for you cheaper than I could."

"There you are mistaken," said he; "I cannot get any detectives in Cincinnati who can do me any good. I tried the best, and they were baffled, and so I had told Mr. Coe when he recommended you."

"I am greatly obliged to Mr. Coe for his good opinion, but your case is a desperate one, if the best detectives of Cincinnati have had it in hand; and I suspect I could not do you the least good. You'll waste your money, I fear."

The man looked for an instant as if he were shot; and then, suddenly recovering himself, he exclaimed, with an energy and fierceness of purpose which pleased me, "But, sir, something _must_ be done, and we must spend all our ready money or go to the wall, at any rate; things are getting complicated in our business, and we must fail in more than one way, _if_ we do not succeed."

"You say 'we.' Are there others involved besides yourself?"

"Yes; my partners, two of them."

"I see that Mr. Coe has not told me your business, merely calling you his 'friend.'"

"Yes, I suppose he thought best to let me tell you my whole story myself; and I would like to do that, although you seem unwilling, sir."

I smiled, and said, "O, no, sir, not unwilling, for it is my business to listen to all such things; but you found me in a grum mood when you came. Have you never passed days in which you wished you were out of your present business, and in some other that you envied."

"Yes, yes," said he excitedly; "and of late I've wished so all the while, for reasons I shall give you."

"Well, go on with your story, I am a good listener."

"The whole matter is in a nutshell," said he, "so far as the crime committed is concerned, and I'll tell you that first. We are bankers, and have lost out of our safe ten thousand dollars in money, and negotiable paper, securities, collaterals, and the like for over thirty thousand more. We have obligations maturing; some have matured already, and we have been pinched to meet them, and the rest we cannot meet without these securities;" and then he went on to tell me when the loss was discovered, etc.

"Well," I broke in, a little impatiently, "if you have _lost_ those papers, what do you propose? To find them?"

"Yes, to get them back; that's what we want. The money has gone, of course,--we don't expect that or any part of it,--but we must have the papers--the collaterals; and here I must tell you, that about a week after our loss we received a note from a lawyer in Cincinnati, saying that he had been visited by parties claiming to reside in Kentucky, asking him to communicate with us, and saying that they were ready to deliver up 'those papers,' which they knew to be valuable to us, upon our coming to the terms which they left with him to communicate to us orally; that he did not know whether the story was all a hoax or not, but if we knew what it meant, we might call on him, and he would narrate the rest. I hurried to see him on receipt of note. He was a stranger to me personally, but I knew him by repute as a lawyer of fair standing, and a man of good social status. When he came to tell me the offer which these parties made, which was to deliver up the papers through their attorney--himself--for fifty per cent. of their face value (for at this point I had only told him that I knew what the parties meant, and had come to hear their offer), I asked, 'Do you know for whom you are dealing? Do you know how these papers came into the possession of the parties?'"

"No; I know nothing of them, more than I tell you. But explain to me how the papers came into their possession."

"By robbery," said I; "those parties are burglars or worse."

"Robbery!" he exclaimed, "and the villains wished to make me a middle-man in the transaction! Tell me all about it, and we'll see if we can't turn the game upon them. Consider me your attorney; it shall cost you nothing,--the scoundrels!"--and he brought his fist down upon his table with a blow that made it quiver. "If I've got to that pass," said he, "that scoundrels dare approach me in this way, it is time I give myself a close examination, and reform, if need be. Please to tell me all about the affair."

"I told him the facts of our loss, and our situation; how the money and papers must have been taken out of our safe by some one who had obtained knowledge of the numbers of the permutation lock; and he asked at once, as you will do, about the clerks, my partners, and so forth, and said some one of them was the villain. But no matter for this now. We laid plans which failed; and he concluded that after all, it must be the work of some one in the office, but how to catch him, was the question; and I cannot think that any of my partners or my clerks is the man, for we have exhausted all schemes in trying to fix the crime on any of them, and failed signally."

"Well, is that all you've got to tell me?"

"No; I've not told you my story yet but in part. When shall I begin again?"

"When you please; but first tell me, perhaps, about your partners, and your clerks, each by himself; who he is, how long he has been with you, and what his age, his habits,--all about him."

So Mr. Redfield--(the reader understands always that assumed names are given in these narratives, where there exists a proper reason for so doing)--Mr. Redfield, as we will call him, went into a minute description of the men, each by himself, and I confess I was baffled. I said to him that it must be that some one of those was the guilty party, yet that nothing he had told me would allow me to suspect one of them for a moment; that my impression of the guilt of one of them was solely the result of the common-sense reflection that somebody who understood the safe-lock, with its numbers, must be the man who took the money and papers: that was all. And in fact I suppose it was, because the case at this point became so desperate, or difficult of solution, that I undertook it all; for if I could have hit upon some expedient which would seem to me likely to work out the problem, I should, in my state of mind at the time, have given Mr. Redfield the advantage of it, for a small counsel fee at most, and declined to go on; but it was just enough unsolvable at this point to vex me, and pique my pride. I did not wonder that the best detectives in Cincinnati had failed, for I could easily see that the scoundrels had only to keep these papers hid in some unsearchable spot, and exercise ordinary care--indeed be quite careless--and never be found out, unless their greed should at last betray them.

It was evident to me, from what Mr. Redfield said, that the parties had become suspicious of the lawyer they visited, for some reason; for they never visited him again, and neglected to answer a rather ingenious advertisement that he published in one of the papers. But they had again managed to communicate with Mr. Redfield, and repeated their offer; and had sent him the form of an advertisement to put in the paper, if he concluded to accept. But he delayed beyond the day they named, unwilling to accept, and still hopeful of detecting the villains, and getting back the full papers for nothing; and thinking better of it, a day or two after, he had published the advertisement, but they had not regarded it; probably, as I judged, because they thought he had laid some plan to trap them. So when he went, "armed to the teeth," he said, out to a lonely place, as indicated in their letter, about five miles, to meet somebody, there to make further arrangements, nobody came.

They were very wary then, and it was evident that they would, as they threatened in their note,--for the writer represented that there were two of them,--destroy the papers unless they got their price for them, and in a manner, too, secure to themselves. They could "afford,"--the wretches!--to lose the papers, for they had made ten thousand dollars in money, at any rate, they kindly wrote.

I insisted that this mode of proceeding on their part indicated an acquaintance with the bankers' business,--showed that they knew the great value of these papers to the firm,--and that this was a further reason for suspecting some one in the office. But Mr. Redfield persisted in believing that the Cincinnati detective had settled that point against my opinion.

Well, it was agreed that I should go on and take my own way to work up the matter, and Mr. Redfield left. I followed him in a day or two, with my first plans matured, and with all such implements, clothes, etc., for disguises which I thought I might need, and met him at a place appointed. My first course was to go into the banking office, with papers in hand of business to be done with the chief, Mr. Redfield; to be delayed there with him talking a long while over the matter of loans on some Western lands, and to engage his assistance in raising capital for a manufacturing concern to be established at Minneapolis, Minnesota. His partners were to be kept profoundly ignorant of my real character, and one of them was to be called into our conference regarding the lands, etc., whenever I indicated. This was the plan I made for getting a chance to slyly study the clerks and the younger partner--for it was out of the question that the older partner could be engaged in the theft.

I went to the banking-house as arranged, called for Mr. Redfield, gave him my name; "made his acquaintance," etc., rather rapidly; and while I was doing so, cast a listless glance around me, and chanced to find the chief clerk's eyes staring at me in a manner not merely of ordinary curiosity. There was a gleam in them which I did not like, and in an instant I changed our plan of operations, and said, "Mr. Redfield, can't I see you in private?"--taking an easy-going look about the room, and not neglecting to take in the clerk in the sweep of my eye. He was writing, and there was a nervousness about the shoulders, a flush in the face, and his lips seemed much compressed. "Guilt there," said I to myself, as Mr. Redfield stepped into the private room.

The door was closed by Mr. R----, who asked, "Why do you change the programme? What have you seen?"

"Enough," said I; "and now the question is how well can you play your part? I know that a man in your office is the guilty party."

Mr. Redfield looked a little astounded at my rapid operations, and replied, "Well, you are to work up the case according to your own methods; but you surprise me."

"Well," said I, "let me alone, then; let's talk up the Western lands, etc.;" and we did--I laughing outright, immoderately at times, telling Mr. Redfield a story or two, which made him laugh in real earnest; and after we'd fixed up a plan, he went out smiling, asked his older partner to come in to see me, saying, "He's the queerest speculator I ever saw; come in, and see if we can do anything for him." And the man came in. We talked, could not get near a bargain, and I finally left the bank, saying to Mr. Redfield that I'd "write in a week or so; perhaps they'd think better of the offer."

I was not at a loss to see, by the clerk's countenance and manner as I went out, that he was at ease again--which was all I wanted to then effect.

Mr. Redfield and I met that night in a place appointed. He told me they'd had much fun in the office over the "queer speculator," and that his partner had no suspicion of my real business at all; and we entered into a serious conversation. I told him that the chief clerk was the guilty man in my opinion, and that I should proceed upon that theory, and pursue it till forced to give up in that direction, and then drop the matter; that there was no use of attempting anything without the clerk in the programme.