“Some stunt!” Cray commented admiringly.
“I did just that, though,” Green Eye assured the millionaire. “Of course, I saw in advance that Simpson would have been powerless unless introduced by the manager of your local paper, and supplied with credentials from the New York office. The credentials might have been forged, to be sure, but a local introduction would have been out of the question without the assistance of a confederate to impersonate the manager, or some one else in authority on the paper. And if there was any impersonating to be done, it was clear that Simpson could do it himself. For the rest, I depended upon your expression, Mr. Griswold, to tell me when I got off the track.”
“It is useless to try to belittle your achievements, sir,” the millionaire told him. “I consider it an evidence of most unusual ability. You have hit upon the truth in a manner that has taken my breath away. You are quite right, Mr. Carter. The trick was turned by means of impersonation, and the man impersonated was the business manager of the Hattontown Observer. Charles Danby is his name, and, as it happens, he and Simpson resemble each other more or less. Simpson pleaded overwork as a result of his extra duties in connection with the fund, and got permission to be away for a couple of days. Evidently he lost no time in going to Hattontown, and there he presented himself at the bank in the guise of Danby.”
“The fellow must have had nerve!” contributed Jack Cray. “Hard to believe he isn’t a dyed-in-the-wool crook.”
“It’s almost incredible,” Griswold agreed, “but apparently there’s no room for doubt that Simpson did the whole business. He was known at the bank, but no one suspected the deception, and the only thing the bank people can remember that was queer about him was his husky voice, which he attributed to a cold.
“In the character of Danby, he informed the bank people, and showed a letter addressed to Danby and signed by Driggs, our vice president. The letter was perfectly genuine, and had been dictated here, in our New York office, following Driggs’ acceptance of Simpson’s scheme for exhibiting the gold. Simpson had managed to get possession of it, however, before it was sent out, and the real Danby never got a sight of it. Naturally, the bank officials did not approve. The plan seemed too spectacular, and altogether too risky. It was none of their business, though, and they finally agreed to an immediate removal of the gold.”
“Simpson had a car handy, then?” queried Green Eye.
“Oh, yes, he had an electric outside—said he had just bought it at secondhand. Hattontown is a place of twenty or thirty thousand, you know—too large for every one to know the business of everybody else; consequently, the bank people had no reason to doubt his word.”
“How about guards, though,” Cray broke in.