"Confound the Dominie," involuntarily exclaimed I, "why couldn't he mind his own business?"
I examined the mail bag, but nothing was missing except the matter that properly belonged to that office.
But at the next trial, the parishioner did not have ministerial aid in opening his mail, and accordingly, probably by way of indemnifying himself for his forced abstinence, he not only seized the decoy package, but several others.
The following day, instead of overhauling the mail, he was himself thoroughly overhauled by an United States Marshal.
A man of such weak virtue, should hire a "dominie" by the year, to stand by and help him resist the devil, during the process of opening the mails.
Not the least painful of the various duties connected with the detection of crime, is the sometimes necessary one of revealing a husband's guilt to his wife.
I anticipated a severe trial of my feelings in making such a disclosure during the progress of a recent important case where the mail robber was in possession of a mail-key by means of which he had committed extensive depredations. He was at length detected, and has lately entered upon a ten years' term in the State Prison.
On his arrest he manifested much solicitude for his wife, fearing that the intelligence of his situation would overpower her. "She is in feeble health at best," said he, "and I am afraid this will kill her."
It was necessary, however, that I should see her in order to get possession of some funds, a part of the proceeds of the robberies, which her husband had committed to her keeping. Furnished with a written order from the prisoner, and leaving him in the Marshal's custody, I proceeded to call on the invalid, racking my brains while on the way to her residence, for some mode of communicating the unpleasant truth which should disclose it gradually, and spare her feelings as much as possible.