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
When the operator or agent has--say, two days before the election--made
all his arrangements for voting, and feels quite confident that, as the
representative of Mr. Heavy Purse, his candidate,--a gentleman who
rejoices in a retiring forehead, thick neck, small brain, a little
talker and smaller doer, who has no political character, principle,
sentiment, or notion whatever,--he has made it all right by virtue of
the money already dropped, and the vastly larger amount promised, he
goes to sleep in his downy, well-curtained bed at the Dodo, charged to
the brim with rosy wine and deep spiritual potations, only to be
awakened in the morning by a vigilant subordinate, who informs him that
shortly before the witching hour over night there came into N---- a
post-chaise or a "trap" with four horses, which did not seem fatigued by
the length of their journey, for they had only come from Z----, but were
the drawers of a load on the floor of the carriage, which hindered
their movement and might have sacrificed their character for speed. The
operator or agent knows that some wealthy political speculator has
arrived with a good round sum in golden sovereigns. He does not think
the affair so cleverly planned as it might have been, and would seem to
have been on the first blush, but still he is a little tremulous,
because he knows that the problem of success may be most easily resolved
by the hand which can ply the largest, or heaviest, golden solvent. He
knows that the magic of gold nowhere exercises a more potent influence
over the soul than at N----; and he would already feel inclined to give
up the contest if he could be sure that the new arrival had a large
preponderance of gold over his own man. Notwithstanding the fact that he
thinks his candidate a superior man, and one that the constituency, if
it could be made honest, would be sure to like; and notwithstanding,
also, that he has had the start of three weeks in canvassing, and got
the promises of a considerable majority of electors over the
comparatively needy Liberal candidate, who has been hitherto opposed to
Mr. Heavy Purse,--the third arrival disquiets the operator.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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