THE MARKED BILLS.
A LITTLE KEY BEARING A MONOGRAM SHAPES THE DESTINY OF AN INTELLIGENT MAN—HOW THIS MAN CAME TO BE INVOLVED IN THE MATTER OF WHICH THIS TALE DISCOURSES—MY PARTNER AND I—FAR-OFF MYSTERIES MAY SOLVE NEARER ONES—A CONSULTATION—A COMMITTEE "SEEK LIGHT," AND FIND CONSOLATION—BURGLARIES AND HIGHWAY ROBBERIES BY THE WHOLESALE—MY PARTNER LEAVES FOR EUROPE—A TOWN IN OHIO INFESTED—A "DOCTOR HUDSON" APPEARS IN THE TOWN—HE MAKES A PROFESSIONAL VISIT TO ONE MR. PERKINS—A COLLOQUY; SEEKING LIGHT—A CALLOUS HAND, AND A CLEW TO MYSTERIES—"DOCTOR HUDSON" EXTENDS HIS ACQUAINTANCESHIP—HE MAKES A NIGHT'S VISIT OUT OF TOWN, AND GETS WAYLAID AND ROBBED, BUT MANAGES TO CREATE THE FATAL EVIDENCE HE WANTS OF THE ROBBERS' IDENTITY—A COUNCIL OF PRINCIPAL CITIZENS—"DOCTOR HUDSON" MAKES A DISCLOSURE—A SCHEME LAID—A "MILITARY INVESTMENT" OF A DOMESTIC FORTRESS; AN EXCITING HOUR—BREAKING INTO A HOUSE AT MIDNIGHT AND SURPRISING A SLEEPER—THE THIEF LEAVES TOWN TO GO TO CINCINNATI TO STUDY MEDICINE WITH "DOCTOR HUDSON"—A SUICIDE—PURITANIC MERCILESSNESS—THE MUSIC TEACHER'S INGENIOUS LETTER TO HIS LADY LOVE.
It is of an occurrence, which took place seven years ago this very month in which I am writing this sketch, that I propose to tell the tale—at midnight; having been unable to sleep much of late, and having now risen from my bed, taken my pen, and set myself at work, with the hope that some continuous mental labor may bring on drowsiness by and by; which, by the way, will not, I trust, affect or infect my narrative.
Seven years ago, then, this month, my partner was called on to go into his native town in the southern portion of Ohio, to assist in ferreting out the perpetrators of sundry highway robberies, burglaries, etc., that were constantly taking place there, and whom it baffled the sagacity of the citizens of the place, and several constables, deputy sheriffs, detectives from Cincinnati, and so forth, to detect. As a dernier resort, the villagers had made up a purse, and appointed a committee to proceed to New York, and wait upon my partner, with the whole story of the countless robberies, and see if he could not lay some plan which should prove successful in the arrest of the villains.
My partner had left his native place in his sixteenth year,—a more than usually bright boy,—had wandered South, working out his own fortune by slow degrees; studied law, and been admitted to practice at Washington, Texas; tried practice for a year or so with some success, but disliked the profession; went to Galveston; made the acquaintance there of an iron-founder and machinist by the name of Hunt, if I rightly recollect, who, taking a liking to him, employed him in his office. My partner having excellent mechanical ability, passed much of his time in the work-rooms of the machine department, and became quite a skilful operator. One day some persons of foreign birth applied at the machine-shop,—as there was no other place in Galveston where they could get the work done,—to have some three or four keys made after certain patterns which they provided. The work was done for them, and in the course of time it came out that these keys had been used in the commission of an extensive burglary at San Antonio. One of the keys had been lost, and by chance bore a peculiar mark—a sort of monogram, which Mr. Hunt caused to be impressed, when proper, upon any work which was issued from his establishment. The key being new, and it being evident that the skilful burglars must have had long acquaintance with the premises which they invaded, a sheriff of San Antonio surmised that the keys must have been made somewhere in Texas, perhaps to the order of some old residents of that State. In fact, he had his eye of suspicion upon some persons who had long borne unenviable characters.—In what place were these made more likely than in Galveston queried he? So he sent the key to a sheriff of Galveston for his inspection, and asked him, if possible, to find out who made the key, and for what description of person it was made. The sheriff of Galveston instantly recognized Mr. Hunt's monogram. Taking down a pair of handcuffs which hung upon a nail in his office, said he to the messenger, "See here! These were made in England, but I had occasion to get Hunt's establishment to repair them a little, six months ago, and there, you see, (pointing to the monogram), he put on his stamp."
It was only the matter of a walk of ten minutes to Hunt's establishment, and as many minutes more spent in getting a detailed account from the workmen and from my partner—Hunt's then clerk—of the personal appearance of the two men who ordered the keys, when the messenger became convinced that the suspicions of the officers at San Antonio had fallen upon the wrong persons; and he thought he knew the real parties,—comparatively very respectable people,—one a well-to-do and educated middle-aged planter, living a little outside of San Antonio,—and so it proved. The parties were arrested and tried. My partner was called as a witness to identify them. The trifle of a lost key, and the little monogram almost carelessly stamped on it by the mechanic, having led to such results, touched the romantic, speculative nature of my partner, and he was never easy after that till, in the course of time, he had found his way into the business at New Orleans, from which city he finally came on to New York to reside.
Mr. Hunt kept up a correspondence with him for years, always trying to get him back into his employ, making him excellent offers, but he never returned to him, save on a visit. Now it happened that Mr. Hunt was a native of the same village, or its vicinity, in which my partner was born, and on his summer visits there,—which he made nearly every year,—he had often descanted upon the great talents and ingenuity of my partner. Thus was it that the committee came to wait upon him. But it was impossible for him to go there with them, or visit the place for a long while, for he was to take steamer the day but one thereafter for England, at the instance of Commodore Vanderbilt, to aid in investigations into some transactions in which it was believed that certain American scoundrels, whom my partner knew, were involved.
We had been introduced to the committee as the partner of the firm, and we had listened to a portion of the story, when my partner announced the fact of his intended visit to England, and added; "But, gentlemen, that need be no loss to you, for my partner here can be of as much service to you as I,"—being, in his kindness, pleased to add,—"and, I think, probably more. If you please to accept him in my place, I am sure you will suffer no loss. He will track out the villains if anybody can."