Secret Service; or, Recollections of a City Detective — John Shaqi
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
One little circumstance none of us had anticipated now arose, to our
embarrassment. The payment of that bill of the landlord of the Green
Swan told the story of Fipps's purse with approximate accuracy. Mr.
Jollefat, the successful candidate, was now suspected by many people of
being near the bottom of my Great Trick. To get at him, however, it was
necessary to track and attack Fipps, which, I am sorry to say, the
disappointed free and independent electors who could not vote at the
late election succeeded in doing. How they discovered him is to me a
secret at this day; but they certainly did somehow find him out, and
they assaulted him by a battery of writs issued out of her Majesty's
Court of Common Pleas, at Westminster. A counsel learned in the law
advised that we had a good defence to these actions, on the ground that
the agreements for service were contracts to pay money either to induce
men to vote--which was bribery--or not to vote, which rendered the
engagements null and void. About the first point I believe there could
be no doubt; around the second I believe there did exist much room for
speculation and legal ingenuity. Mr. Jollefat, however, wished to avoid
discredit with his constituents; so it was thought expedient to get rid
of the difficulty by another mode. Fipps was a man of cosmopolitan
tastes, and he had not the phrenological organs of locality and
adhesiveness largely developed. It mattered not much to him on which
side of the Atlantic or of the Pacific he dwelt. Somebody on his
behalf, an attorney, intimated to the solicitor for Mr. Jollefat that it
would be cheaper to "square" Fipps than to submit to the game process
all the voters and their actions. One hundred pounds was the sum named
as one that would take the eloquent and popular candidate beyond the
jurisdiction of her Majesty's judges and officers. The amount was
provided, and he quietly set sail, or rather took steam, for the United
States of America, where, I am told, an ample scope and opportunity for
the exercise of the peculiar abilities of that popular candidate has
always been found in the service of the various parties who divide the
spoils of the Model Republic.
MISTAKEN IDENTITY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account