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
Would the reader like to guess what the letter contained? It was a
transcript in cipher of the minute of the board in relation to that case
of damage and compensation! A confederate of the gang, or at least one
of its spies, actually held a confidential situation in the secretary's
office, so near to the heart of the company's innermost secrets that he
could copy the minutes from the book in which their resolutions were
recorded. It was under this guidance the plaintiff instructed the
attorney, employed by the gang for that action, to take his stand upon
800_l._ precisely, and it was through this infamous betrayal of the
company's confidence that the plunderers got the money.
Of course I now handed the document over to the company. The money had,
however, been paid. My prisoner was found guilty on another charge, so
that it was not requisite to prosecute _him_ for the railway fraud. The
clerk was also not prosecuted. He escaped that fate under the shelter of
his respectable connexions. He solemnly assured the directors that he
had not participated in the plunder, that the forger was not one of his
regular associates, that he had learned the cipher, but as an amusement,
playfully, and that he merely told him the effect of the board's
resolution in order that he might induce his friend, the plaintiff (who
he supposed had been indeed hurt), not to persist in his excessive
demand. The directors believed, or affected to believe, this story.
Perhaps they did not like it to transpire that fraud and villany had
nestled in their head-quarters, and so near to the very centre of their
administration. However that may have been, I know that they
reprimanded, censured, and dismissed the clerk, and that they abstained
from his prosecution.
When this young gentleman, who had copied the minute, was discharged,
the company imagined no doubt that they had weeded out the fraudulent
elements which tainted their confidence. How great their mistake was
will now appear. The matter I am about to speak of occurred only about
twelve months after the episode just narrated.
It so happened that, at the date of this grand "plant," a clerk attached
to the chief cashier's office, whose duty it was to convey the wages
down the main line, had arranged to take his annual month's holiday and
to start on Friday--the day on which he had always delivered out the
money.
"What is to be done about the wages, sir, this week?" the clerk inquired
of the chief cashier.
"Oh, that's easily managed, Wilson," replied that gentleman; "you must
pay on Thursday."
"Thank you, sir. But shall I telegraph to the stations and tell them we
pay this week on Thursday?"
"That may be as well, Wilson," added the chief cashier.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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