"Overton, the counterfeiter of twenty-five cent stamps, who was arrested some time ago, pleaded guilty on Friday last. Roberts will also probably be speedily convicted, and, as he is not so fortunate as to have 'a wife and nine children,' there is no likelihood of his receiving the hasty pardon which was recently granted to Antonio Rosa, a similar criminal."
THE GAMBLER'S WAX FINGER.
CHARLES LEGATE—A FORGER—STUDYING HIM UP—FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS, HIS "PRIZE"—DESCRIPTION OF LEGATE—NO TWO PERSONS EVER AGREE IN DESCRIBING ANOTHER—A MARK HIT UPON—START FOR ST. LOUIS—MUSINGS—CURIOUS INCIDENTS OF MY JOURNEY—A GENEALOGICAL "DODGE"—ON LEGATE'S TRACK AT LAST—ST. LOUIS REACHED—OF MY STAY THERE—LEAVE FOR NEW ORLEANS PER STEAMER—A GENIAL CROWD OF MEN AND WOMEN ON BOARD—CHARACTERISTICS OF A MISSISSIPPI "VOYAGE"—NAPOLEON, ARKANSAS—SOME "CHARACTERS" COME ON BOARD THERE—A GAMBLING SCENE ON BOARD—ONE JACOBS TAKES A PART—A PRIVATE CONFERENCE WITH JACOB'S NEGRO SERVANT—A TERRIFIC FIGHT ON BOARD AMONG THE GAMBLERS—JACOBS SET UPON, AND MAKES A BRAVE DEFENCE—HOW I DISCOVERED "JACOBS" TO BE PROBABLY LEGATE, IN THE MELEE—HE IS BADLY BRUISED—HIS LIFE DESPAIRED OF—WE ARRIVE IN NEW ORLEANS—JACOBS' IDENTIFICATION AS LEGATE—LEGATE PROVES TO BE VERY RICH—A CURIOUS VISIT TO AN ITALIAN ARTIST'S STUDIO—A NOVEL MEDICINE ADMINISTERED TO SIGNORE CANCEMI, THE SICK ARTIST—HE GETS WELL AT ONCE.
Early in my detective life, when I was more ready than now to accept business which might lead me far from home, I was commissioned by a New York mercantile house to go to St. Louis first, and "anywhere else thereafter on the two continents" (as the senior member of the house fervently defined my latitude) where my thread might lead, to work up a subtle case of forgery to the amount of about fifty thousand dollars, out of which the house had been defrauded by one Charles Legate, a Canadian by birth, but combining in himself all the craft of an Italian, with the address of the politest Frenchman, and the bold perseverance and self-complacency of a London "speculator." The task before me was a difficult one, and at that time more than now I craved "desperate jobs," entering into them with an enthusiasm proportioned to the trials and dangers they involved.
After a thorough study in every particular of the correspondence between Legate and the house, which covered a long period of time, and in which was disclosed to me, as I thought, a pretty clear understanding of the man in all his various moods and systems of fraudulent pursuit, and having gathered from the members of the house every particular in regard to the personal appearance of Legate, of which they could possess me, I started on my mission. The house had been unable for some time to get any word from Legate, or any tidings of his recent whereabouts from others; so we felt certain that I should not find him at St. Louis, the point from which they had last heard from him, and where they had evidence he had for some weeks resided; so I was even unusually particular in my inquiries of the firm as to Legate's mode of dress, the peculiarities of his manner, and all possible personal indices. Legate was one of those men whom it is difficult to describe, being of medium height, having black eyes and black hair, a nose neither large nor small, mouth of medium size, teeth the same, nothing peculiar about his cast, and his complexion sometimes quite light, at others "reddish." There's nothing more difficult to determine by inquiry from others than a man's complexion, no two persons seeing it alike. He dressed neither gaudily nor carelessly, and though my informants all agreed that he was a man of consummate address, yet none of them could by imitation give me any definite representation of his manner.
Almost in despair of learning anything at all definite about his personnel, which might enable me to identify Legate, I finally said, "Gentlemen, almost everybody is in some way deformed or ill-formed—nose a little to one side—one foot larger than the other, leading to a habit of standing on it more firmly than on the other—one shoulder higher than the other—an arm a little out of shape—hand stiff—fingers gone, or something of the sort."