On Secret Service: Detective-Mystery Stories Based on Real Cases Solved by Government AgentsTaft, William Nelson
General
On Secret Service: Detective-Mystery Stories Based on Real Cases Solved by Government Agents
Taft, William Nelson
Detective and mystery stories, American; Secret service -- United States -- Fiction; Short stories, American
"Sure I will, and anything else you want done." The chief was nothing if
not obliging--a fact which Simmons incorporated in his official report,
which he filed a few days later, a report which stated that "David
Holden, wanted on a charge of attempting to obtain money under false
pretenses, had committed suicide by drowning rather than submit to
arrest."
The body has not been recovered [the report admitted], but
this is not to be considered unusual at this time of the year
when the current is very strong. The note left by the
fugitive is attached.
Back from Washington came the wire:
Better luck next time. Anyhow, Holden won't bother us again.
If this were a moving picture [Quinn continued, after a pause], there
would be a subtitle here announcing the fact that seven years are
supposed to elapse. There also probably would be a highly decorated
explanatory title informing the audience that "Uncle Sam Never Forgets
Nor Forgives"--a fact that is so perfectly true that it's a marvel that
people persist in trying to beat the government. Then the scene of the
film would shift to Seattle, Washington.
They would have to cut back a little to make it clear that Larry Simmons
had, in the meantime, left the Pension Bureau and entered the employment
of the Post-office Department, being desirous of a little more
excitement and a few more thrills than his former job afforded. But he
was still working for Uncle Sam, and his memory--like that of his
employer--was long and tenacious.
One of the minor cases which had been bothering the department for some
time past was that of a ring of fortune-tellers who, securing
information in devious ways, would pretend that it had come to them from
the spirit world and use it for purposes which closely approximated
blackmail. Simmons, being in San Francisco at the time, was ordered to
proceed to Seattle and look into the matter.
Posing as a gentleman of leisure with plenty of money and but little
care as to the way in which he spent it, it wasn't long before he was
steered into what appeared to be the very center of the ring--the
residence of a Madame Ahara, who professed to be able to read the stars,
commune with spirits, and otherwise obtain information of an occult
type. There Larry went through all the usual stages--palmistry,
spiritualism, and clairvoyance--and chuckled when he found, after his
third visit, that his pocket had been picked of a letter purporting to
contain the facts about an escapade in which he had been mixed up a few
years ago. The letter, of course, was a plant placed there for the sole
purpose of providing a lead for madame and her associates to follow. And
they weren't long in taking the tip.
The very next afternoon the government agent received a telephone call
notifying him that madame had some news of great importance which she
desired to impart--information which had come to her from the other
world and in which she felt certain he would be interested.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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