Detectives -- United States -- Biography; Pinkerton, Allan, 1819-1884; Robbery -- United States -- Case studies
After leaving Cook, Maroney sauntered out to see his fair, but frail
friends. Roch left him there and returned to have a good time with his
countrymen. He had ordered up a bottle of wine, and the landlord and he
were just about to have a game of euchre when he accidentally glanced up
at the hotel.
It was fortunate he did so, as whom should he see going in at the main
entrance but Maroney. He hastily excused himself from the game and
walked out. He had gone hardly a block from his boarding-house before
Maroney came down and got into a carriage. He had gone at once to his
room, ordered his trunk down, paid his bill and was now being hurried to
the depot.
Roch followed as fast as he could. Maroney had allowed himself barely
enough time to check his trunk and step upon the train as it moved off,
so that Roch had to start without his satchel and without buying a
ticket. He did not think much of the loss of his baggage, that little
loss being more than compensated by the joy he felt at not having lost
his man.
He had not the slightest idea where Maroney was going, but took up his
old position in the "nigger car" and watched closely. When the conductor
came around to Maroney, Roch noticed two things: first, that Maroney
bought a through ticket to Memphis; and second, that the conductor did
not know him. Wherever he had gone before, he had met friends, but now
he had left them all behind. Roch followed Maroney's lead and bought a
second class ticket to Memphis.
Maroney, though utterly unconscious of the fact, was as much in the
power of Roch as was Sindbad the Sailor in the power of the little old
man who clung to his neck with a grasp that could not be loosened.
Although, literally, Roch did not touch him, figuratively he held him
with a grasp of iron, and all Maroney's efforts to shake him off would
have proved waste of time and strength.
A storm was impending when they left Chattanooga and it had now burst
upon them in a perfect fury. Night had set in, but flash after flash of
lightning lit up the sky. One moment, objects were rendered distinctly
visible as they dashed by, the next they were lost in gloom. The sparks
from the locomotive were quenched in the falling torrent and the roar of
the train was silenced by the loud peals of thunder.
It was a wild night, but Roch got on the platform to make sure of
Maroney. There were no sleeping-cars at the time and he had no trouble
in getting a good view of him. Maroney was stretched out on his seat
fast asleep. He watched him for some time, and then concluding that
there was little danger of his attempting to leave the car on such a
night, he went back to his seat in the "nigger car."
Ever since he had left Montgomery, Maroney had been executing a series
of strategic movements, and now that he had undoubtedly thrown his
pursuers, if there were any, off his track, why should he not ease his
overwrought mind by sleep, that sweetest of all consolers?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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