"Well, gentlemen," I replied, "this is a case where the greatest care must be exercised, for the criminal is a bold, skillful man, of good education and address, with, probably, a fair knowledge of his legal rights. We cannot afford to make any mistakes, for he would surely take advantage of them. We must, therefore, present the case to him in such a way that he will believe it to be to his interest to give himself up. The presence of the Peruvian man-of-war in New York is very fortunate, for, once under her flag, he cannot escape; but he must be induced to go on board voluntarily, or else we shall be liable to the charge of kidnapping." I then explained the method by which he had had swindled the citizens of Gloster, and showed how difficult it would be to convict him of anything, owing to the probability that his victims would refuse to testify against him; besides, for obtaining money under false pretenses, a short imprisonment only could be inflicted, and then he would be free to go where he pleased. "However," I continued, "I think I can present to him his position in such a light that he will regard a surrender to the Peruvian authorities as preferable to a long trial and detention here, with the possibility of being sent to California or Great Britain for trial on a more serious charge. When he knows that we are fully acquainted with his past career, he may be willing to accept our terms rather than to defy us." "Suppose, however," said the Minister, "that he should refuse all terms, and determine to fight it out?" "In that case," I replied, "we should be obliged to arrest him here for obtaining money under false pretenses, and be prepared to arrest him again the moment he should be set free, repeating the operation as often as we could get different victims to enter complaint against him. The number of stockholders in this bogus company is quite large, so that we could easily hold him until a requisition could be obtained from California or England." "How large a sum has he in his possession now?" asked the Consul. "About half a million dollars," replied the Senator. "Well," said the Consul, "that sum will go far toward reimbursing the people whom he swindled in Peru, so I think that Mr. Pinkerton's plan is the best that can be adopted. We might induce him to go aboard our vessel by promising to use our influence to lighten his sentence, in case he makes restitution to his victims in Peru." The Consul made these remarks with a wise expression, as if he thought he had hit upon a very easy way of solving the problem. The Senator, Judge Key, and I exchanged looks of astonishment and amusement at this cool proposal to take our citizens' money to reimburse the Peruvians; it was a case of "robbing Peter to pay Paul" which we could not appreciate. Finally, I said: