The check now, instead of being for ten dollars, called for $5,000 and although a composite thing the signature was no forgery, and that was the principal writing studied by the paying tellers of banks.
It looked like a perfectly genuine check torn in two, for as both checks had been torn together, the curves of one fit the grooves of the other piece to perfection.
Jesse now burned up the remaining two pieces.
"Eureka!" he exclaimed, with an evil smile. "I've done it well. The most experienced bank clerk in the country would fail to detect the deception. Now to get it cashed!"
He put on his hat, and holding the two pieces of check in his hand, he left the Sea Spider House.
Making his way to the Wrightstown bank, he coolly entered, and approaching the paying teller's little brass barred window, he thrust in the two pieces of check and said blandly:
"Please cash that for me."
"You've torn the check in two," said the paying teller.
"I had it in my breast pocket, and as I was coming in the door I put my hand in my pocket to draw it out, when the end of the check caught in some books and it ripped in two."
The paying teller matched the torn ends.