Ben as a Banker—Faro Banker—Burglars—Counterfeit Money, and how Hogan didn’t Handle it—Ben as a Doctor—Allen in New York City—Why the Fight Fell Through.
Soon after the election, Ben closed up his place in Petrolia, and separated from Kitty. She went on to Pittsburg, and he soon after followed.
At that time, for want of anything better to do, he went largely into the banking business—the faro banking business. In his tours about town he fell in with a party of first-class cracksmen, who were making ready for an extensive job. These men took Hogan into their confidence, and told him that they could make half a million dollars if they had the capital to carry them through.
Ben consented to furnish the money, and to become a silent partner in the proposed undertaking. The field of operation was the city of Baltimore, to which place the cracksmen, in company with Ben, made their way.
In the week which Hogan spent at the Utah House, he thought over the business which had brought him to Baltimore seriously and carefully. He reasoned with himself that all these men were bound to bring up sooner or later in prison or on the gallows, and he reached the determination that he would have nothing to do with the business. Hardened as he was, and elastic as his conscience may have been, he was not prepared to assist in robbery.
He told this to the burglars, saying:
“You must count me out of this job, gentlemen. I will furnish you the money for any legitimate purpose, but I must decline to hold a hand in the game!”
After his week in Baltimore, Ben drifted to New York. By this time his money was getting low, and he entered into a little of the speculation known technically as dealing in the “queer,” and commonly as offering counterfeit money for sale. But the reader will observe, as the narrative progresses, that our hero never had a dollar of the “queer” in his possession. His plan of operation, while in New York, was somewhat as follows:
Having selected his victim, who was invariably a stranger in the city, he would approach him cautiously on the subject, and finally invite him to his room in the hotel. There he would produce a satchel, containing some genuine bank notes, show them to the visitor, and inform him that they were counterfeits.
“You wouldn’t believe it,” Ben would add, “but it’s a fact. To the right sort of person, I am willing to sell this in large quantities for thirty cents on the dollar. Here are five hundred dollars, and you can take it along, satchel and all, for one hundred and fifty!”