Secret Service; or, Recollections of a City DetectiveForrester, Andrew
General
Secret Service; or, Recollections of a City Detective
Forrester, Andrew
Detective and mystery stories, English; Fiction; Short stories
Almost as soon as Mr. Driver left the shores of the Mersey, I was
desired to bestow upon him my attentions. I supplied him with an unseen
guard of dishonour. His movements were watched until he landed at the
port of ----. Here, as no instructions to arrest him on the Continent
were given me, he was left.
The principal creditors of the bankrupt determined to follow him. He was
now an outlaw. The time for his surrender had expired. A warrant that
would run into France could be obtained for his arrest and for his
removal to this country. The requisite processes--or those which able
lawyers thought sufficient--were obtained, and placed in my hands.
I went over myself, and one of the Liverpool gentlemen was my agreeable
companion.
In obedience to the wishes of my employer and associate, I consented to
go with him to the office of the British consul.
The British consul was a high and mighty man in his own esteem, and he
snuffed me out in the grandest style. I could not help admiring the art
with which this servant of the British Crown reduced me, from the height
of my legitimate self-respect, to the nothingness he thought my true
status.
"They manage things differently in France to what they do in England,
sir, I can tell you. Now, leave the matter all to me, sir, till the
fellow's captured, and you have him again in England."
I and my friend retired to the passage of the consul's office (which was
one small room) to confer on the subject. The consul also had a
conference in his office with his man of all work, whose name I
afterwards ascertained to be Boggy. At this conference I agreed to allow
the consul to take his own course of action in France, and I was to
merely assist when asked to render aid.
"Well, my man Boggy shall go and see whether the fellow is at this
moment in the port. Boggy will soon ascertain that."
Boggy's palm was crossed with a golden coin, which bore an effigy of
England's Queen, to stimulate his zeal in the execution of her laws.
The Frenchman was not long in discovering Mr. Abraham Driver's
whereabouts. He came back to announce that the man we wanted was
unsuspectingly smoking a meerschaum at the Anglo-American Hotel.
Now to seize the villain. I was ready, and the defrauded creditor was
intensely anxious for the fellow's capture.
"Nay, nay," said the consul. "We must go to the commissary of police. I
must pay his fees. It will not take long to get through the ceremonies,
but it will cost money to arrest the scoundrel. Nothing is done in this
country, sir, without money."
"What will be the amount of the fees, do you suppose?" asked my client.
"I can't say exactly. About 16_l._ or 17_l._ You had better let me have
20_l._, and I can return you the balance."
Boggy here threw his mercurial eyes at the consul, and then at me, and
then at my client. This had the desired effect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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