Occasionally we have been startled by the presentation of a bad note, a forged cheque, and other cunningly-devised schemes of well-practiced swindlers to impose on our simplicity and credulity, which circumstances have forced us into the excitement of judicial investigations.
Thus, from time to time, I was brought into contact with some of the most celebrated detectives of the day. I still remember the feelings of admiration with which I witnessed the skill and sagacity of such men as John Forrister, Leadbeater, the Bow-street officer, Inspector Wicher, and other police officers, in tracking and detecting a swindler.
At that period I little dreamt that my quiet life would be disturbed by an eventful episode, such as I am about to relate.
On the morning of the 28th of September, 186-, I was at my post as usual, when a message from the bank manager summoned me to his presence. I saw at a glance, on entering the room, that something had happened.
My chief informed me that a customer of the bank, whom, for obvious reasons, I will call Mr. Hooker, had absconded.
I was aware, not only that he was under an engagement to liquidate a considerable claim we had against him, but that he had recently fixed a day for the fulfilment of his promise, assuring us that he should be in the immediate receipt of a large sum of money, which would enable him to pay his debt, and leave a balance to his credit in our hands.
The statement of his expected funds was no fiction—he duly received them—but instead of appropriating his newly-acquired wealth to the honest discharge of our claim, he clandestinely left his home, and before the intelligence of his departure had reached us, he was half-way to Canada.
The manager’s indignation at the fradulent conduct of an individual whom he had believed to be an honourable man, and had trusted as such, did not surprise me. Neither was I astonished when he told me he would do all in his power to punish the absconding debtor, if means could be adopted to discover and arrest him in his flight.
It was a matter for serious deliberation. Ultimately, acting on an impulse I could not control, I proffered my services to go in pursuit of the defaulter. They were accepted.
The same evening, in company with one of our directors, I left by the mail train for Liverpool, reaching that place some little time after midnight. The object of this journey was to endeavour to ascertain, through the Liverpool detectives, when and by what ship Mr. Hooker had sailed, as well as his destination, in order that we might arrive at a conclusion as to the propriety of my crossing the Atlantic in pursuit.