When I first began to go about as a detective, I fell into a similar trap several times.
I was so sure Gleason and Spencer were doing the stealing, that I would have arrested them on suspicion and forced a confession out of them, had it not been that I wanted Sam Kean to understand just how foolish he had really been.
Well, he found out—don’t make any mistake about that. A more thoroughly taken down individual you never saw.
After that he was willing enough to receive all the instructions I had a mind to give him.
You see I got Doyle into the freight-room at the end of the week, just as I told him I would, but Dave’s appearance was altered by a black wig, and Sam never guessed who it was. Besides that I was in the cellar and came to the rescue at the proper moment.
It was Dave and I who took those two young scoundrels around to the New Church street station, or rather I did the most of it, for Dave had all he could do to take care of Sam.
Do you notice that my account of the end of the affair differs slightly from his? You will observe that he don’t mention me at all?
Well, no wonder. The poor fellow was so drunk that he did not know which end he was standing on that night.
He says they forced liquor down his throat after he was bound. I know this to be true, for Dave saw them doing it through the key-hole; but I’m afraid Sam had taken several drinks before, or the stuff would not have had the effect upon him that it did.
Now this brings me to another and most important point—one that a young man in starting upon the career of a detective has got to pay more attention to than anything else.