A BRANDED COUNTERFEIT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7132, 22 June 1901, Page 2

A BRA ND ED COUNTERFEIT.

A BURGLARY OUT OF THE USUAL. (From the "Notebook, of Ge«tiema» George-" Confidence-man.) "It's abouj; time for thei sal^ ef Old Joey's package, and we erter watoh ©ufe ftar it, sure," remarked Ssaithers, one $*y, som»wh.at irrelevaoitly. And then, in response to my equally tact inquiry, h-e related the Joitowing story, whudi I tell after, my own fashion, »in<£ it irks my pen to describe -Hi* patter. Some tines bsfare SmithewfWa so. fortunate as t» connect himself witb ma, he was travelling West per freight with a casual companion* answering to the name of Old Joey. Theee can be no- doubt, that Old Joey was as disreputable aa ha was ancient— a .ra-»s.bvy nature^ yafc proae to WWKierfrom the paths of 'vagrancy into those of crimin&E- . ty. He generally travelled for his health, to yrhieh elos^ confi-iemen* waa detrimental; shunning Observation with that exclus-ivel-ees which bespeaks one whose resources \-are not dependent on the communal spirit of tiie age. fhe old; dodger was close-mouthed about ■'his* graft,, but Sinithers judged it to be widerjr comprehensive, not confined to ag.---1 pies, for instance, but comprising any fruit from the tree of knowledge, tt ?'$ s ■ evident,, .however, that he had not foregathered many plums at ill events, and yet he seimed. to gain-good cheer with every ?e---vo^utidie* Qf th§ wtaells. Smithers noted this peculiarity, and by shrewd questions gradually led him to say that he hsd forwarded Iqt express; a certain package te the city of safuge whi&er they were bound, whiehf, when regained, would insure for him a residence on the »»nny side. c| Easy Street for l*fe. ! Further infonaatioa was.' hopelessly- cut off just. At this point, for the ttraitn t teifeing a paifticularly sharp curve, in a peeuibarly haxd way, Old Joey was jostled firojft the bumpers and. . effectually sesolyed into- his cen^oaent pai>ta along; a mile or so ef the c»der patt*. "Why haven't yoa ixtqaiaed Jo»^ ago for ' this package t" I asked, as. Smithers finish- - ed iwb> a atoriuary tribwte quite too reaJis- . tic fop repetition. "You don't s'pose he told ns* the-yk'ire:*. name and address, dn you?" j-jr ja-torted ; and upon mature defibaration I didn't. w Then how are y«u g»ing t» identify it?" I continued. - .. «Weli; r h» exjhlajbed, "tit* eld man's braces was tied up with bits of yattsr tape, which I have figgeted vmi have been left over from the bundle.'* This furnished, a fahr working hypothesis, aayftow; and the scheme itself, being a gamble, appealed, of course, to my sporting blood. So in the end, Smithers and I •occupsed front seats at the dfily advertised auction of unctairaed packages in the pos-. Bes«ion bf the express company. The assemblage was as motley as the coßjanedatiw; and glad J was when S&tith- ■ ers indicated as our quarry a rectangular package ■, tied ''hf^h yelJow' tftring, which looted for aM the worfd as if it might contain a specimen of 'the outpnt of some ; brickyard. This impression seemed to pre-' vaU generally, for there was bo bidding against me, and -tiie aucttonee? jokingly 'suggested that. I sliould put it in my hat •wb^n 'he fcao<*ed it diown. Jew 2& cents. "lfis a geld one/ Qaa-.fi*, " whispered . Smithers before we -$ach<ea thto street ; ."andb, josafted with ye«ar firwit it oxter be avail'ble among the hayseeds*" I m»de, u& reply ., | ney«.epo__e until we weate back m our room. My vfiagws, tigb% clasping tlhat package, kept: repeating ft message through their sensitive tip* which I dared not believe. They tirem^ad as I undid the yellow t*pe>, axui my whiw& frame responded as I -laid back the wrapper, for that despised specimen* tiiat, dubious gold * brick, was a solid pile of crisp, new bills ! They were twenties, gold certiiJcates, bearing the vignette of Mr Secretary Manning, aa like as if he had just called the convention to order, and as fresh, as unspotted, as if a little girl in tha bureau o| printing aaid engraving had just stripped them ftom the plate. Oh, the darlings ! I counted them over, one after another, ea£h one the more, beautiful for being so perfect a copy of its beautiful jjredecessor ; five hundred, seven hundwd, nine hundred and ninety I " There's 20,00-Odol, old nwn," I shouted, as I picked iip the last bill. And then my heart dropped as. heavily as it had bounded lightty, for that bill had been branded across its face; it was a counterfeit ! : . -- * dfte queer, the whole queer, and "nothing but tiie queer," I groaned; after a half hour's close and critical examination. : "Well, what of itf* retorted Smithers, stolidly. "I don't believe in bein' so blame partic'lar. Think of the s'loons and faro banks, Garge, that would swatter them biHs in a gulf and readh for more." I shook my head, for I was younger then, with ideas aboufc personal liberty. " One was detected and so another might be," I declared. "I won't go up against the United States authorities, Smithers." " But they look so good," .he replied. Aye, so they did. My study had revealed certain minute defects -ih the drawing, but the paper, the ink, the general mechanism, the tout ensemble— whx« * he y w6re magnificent. It was the peddling process I feared, the becoming associated with bills of the same large denomination. "If I could only find someone having a wad of these twenties," I murmured; "why, we might substitute ours for his, ami nobody the. wiser." " Gee," cried Smithers, " that reminds me of what Slim Maccles was a tellin' the odder evenin'"; arid 'then he went on to relate that this person, renowned among cracksmen for the dehcacy of his ear and the fineness of his touch, had recently been employed by a firm «S safe manufacturers to open' a safe defying > theix skill in a private house out in $"> suburbs, and that, in an inner compartment, he had seen a pile of crisp new twenties, " like to make yemr heart b-eed." I lost no time in de? spatching Smjtibei-s for this man, nor did he lose any ih returning with him. Slim Maccles, tall, cadaverous, with skeleton, faoe and- long, skinny -haawls, as supple as' osiers^ was quite the most melancholy bbfeob % ijad ever seen off the boards of - As/Yoii tflke It."^ " Hope," he responded to my first hints, " I'm on the retired list ; balled and chained to respectability by my own talon?. In coorse I cu<| trow the look with a twist and a twirl of these 'ere dukes ; bub what then?- I'm tbe uniy one in Ameriky thafe cud do. it, and there isn't a headquarters or an, agency or a plain-clothes man, but know? it-. Cuss genus, says I, that keeps arppv^ 'a.^wdrkin , for tiie makers, when he mi^t, have,. thf make«i '> work.n' for him," i_nd^ne'l_eavec.'a sigh like' an electric fan. Then I explained that I wanted the excitement and danger of an ordinary burglary as littie as he did ; thafc my idea was to substitute the bogus bills for the genuine ones, through his opening and closing the safe, so secretly that there could be no suspicion of tampering ; and that, in consequence, the chances were that the counterfeits would pass unquestioned from hand to hand, in this direction and that, until there would be no possibility of the fraud being traced, were it discovered here and there. The man's fishy eyes glistened, more, I believe, from pride in displaying hia skill

than desire for booty, though we promised him a full third; and he consented at once. We thereupon resolved! ourselves intqj a committee on ways and means. The report made by Slim Maccles was gratifying io tbe exfcrane. The house, he said, was accessible, standing in a secluded plantation, with piazzas on aill aides. The bolt on the library window could be easily pushed aside with a thin- steel bar. Once inside, the safe, though really an up-to-date affair, and proof against any ordß-*ry burglar not using dynamite, would be nuts to bim. He could already hear the music of the tumblers as they fell into place under his inspired itoucih. t ; The owner, an old man named Cragie, was popularly supposed to be a miser.. If , : so, so much the better; sinoe he would' treasure the notes instead of putting them into .circulation. He should- say that the mzmW Craigie now -had corresponded pretty closely with the size of our package, but there would be ample opportunity to run them over so «s to make the eßbstitotion exact. . _, Servants? AS he had seen Were an old woman and an older man; yon could knock them down together withi a breath. He had heard something about* » -housefeeeper, but what c* it? A competent housekeeper never allowed her rest to be disturbed ; and a good rule, too,; to Jjus one, if she wanted to save her cwwkl Thus Slim , Maccles, afi»r a\ dissree* pree«s of -expuapgatiqai, ... - , It was a gof; ib was sure to be a. g<H We planned cautiously, "** executed boldly —two essentials to success. The- very a 8 * 6 wight w» drcwe <hit to tin* Qr»&fi plan**" tion. We haitehei *h& teaa- in a- remote grove j we made our way fcjrtsa fields to the fcenMe. AH was «£•»*. save lor ow breathing; all waa dark ■ aasw "i dr the. fur tive gleams from thia glim under Smifchers's skilful management. Bv*ieisttly the old man's faith in tha sa-fa was «upJL-en», for w$ had Uft difficulty in entering the libr«y after the manner Sito Mw*fca had. % dicated. .* . ' .. - - A noble roem, 16% wd wide, with ire. qnent recesses and cnrtained doiorways. on either side. Opposite thet fisejjJaQe flSwtpied . tthe round polished plate of the safe^ sefr-iin soiid masooßy. SJLm's fine ear was clase to bh* steel* Slina"» tentasle-ltkfc fingers s&wsy turned the -knob, this way iad iha*. There l was a faint elinik, dink, and *fcft man, springing to. hia feet in feiuniph, gave, a ■ pull and a swing, a®d *he elaborate mech-an-t ism swung; opsn. [ Smithes* <fctew nearer withi the* glim. Again those maofveßon* senses, by sound j and touch, interpreted and betrayed the [ fectett oi safety. $*ft inner compartment \ tay exposed; its treaHtare of crisp, new [ twenties was at our mercy. ; "Count them, v I whispwied;: ased as Siim obeyed, Smithers and I, under our U«o*h, repeated the toil. 1 . Fiv» hund-ed, seven ktwdyed, nine hw.- --' dred and. nicefcy-ninfi - , one thousand beauties ; in- ail, as fres_£ as unspotted, aa wfcem fi»t ' verified at, the. Treasury Depigment !• Oh, • : it wm wonderiul; the- good \ho». cprrespoaded exactly with the bad! No-need of eaifrying away any of the soiacoßsbawt, so tricky.; no seed of lea-ring * (phatn4 any oi the -tru*^ daarßngs, each ci whidh was a guarantee for so> much sport and dash and ffing-1 Quick, then, let us taJfce i -tba- goods the gods had provided, ; iMtMkeTV envy and subvert onr happiness-. ! In an instajgt, Sim had thrust, the good j mea»y intp.hfe poefeet, und tha counterfeits ■ taW the comparfeffi&fc. A deft- turn here, a cunning twirl theie, and again the polished steel eye. Islepb its futile, watch In. the. solid masostpry. Wew«ce out oa the pia_as», pausing |or •H-oment, .while Smithera slipped back into place the window: both l aad then, oh, then, as silent, as saie as -shadows*. w»* «Aeve tluteuglk the plantstion to the grove where we -badr left ouf conveyance, Tbew. we clasped hands* and. whirled rwaid andf rouadin an- ecstasy of joy, Wly to fall intoi the depltha «f agony when, wi*h eaid-den reeoQection, I cried t i'My ; God, wsbaib*. fools, we^aiel W* leit tibe l»ai-cW counterfeit with the others!" Amd sa we had. Our unexpected good luck inf finding that, the amounts of the two piles of nojjea exactly corresponded, joined to, the nerveua exojteanen* natter which we were acting, had confined our -thought* to the one purpose, of making the substitution and getting away. Stupid, inexcusably Stupid > yes, ot course, it -was ; but try burglarising; yourae-f, oh, critic, and see whether in the unkwwrn, portentous darkness, where*, every wani-mato 'object is an enemy in ambush and every nerve in ease's bddy is a treadterous ally about to desert, y<m may no* make a natural but fatal slip. If yoo do' not, your*> a good one ; to my mind the stoutest defence of society _*«•» in the human frailties- of those who w»r against it. \Then followed bitter recriminations on aU sides, the suggestion from me, backed up by Ssnithexs, that we had bpst let wrfl enough alone, and stubborn opposition from Sljao, Maiccles. " No, sirree,"" he reiterated, " I've got ths bills in my clothes, and I won't give them up until! have, replaced that cussed stamped t'img with one of them! Wadder you take me for? Do you think yw can play »c jn any sect, way? Hain't I tola you that I'm the one that wud. be suspect|-d? Do you s'pose I can't see that when that old poppy^guy runs over bis gelt in, the morning and comes across, army aech knockdown argyment he will knew I'ye been there and will have the hull push in a hue an' cry on my heels? Not on yer life! Eeder we all goes back together or I goes alone, and to oncet!" ; Resistance wjis useless. You- can't reason with such iron-bound obstinacy, and, of course, J discarded Smitherg's mute but vigorous hint, conveyed by » clutch on my throat, that we sfoould proceed to sterner measures. S» in the end we. retraced our. steps, but in a far different mood, a mood that presaged danger and defeat. Yes, it :'s the manner of an enterprise as well as the means that insures success. So far $s physical conditions were concerned, we were certainly better off than when we had made our first attempt. There was still some hours of the night remaining ;we knew the way ; there was nothing to be feared from watchmen or alairms. And yet the fine, reckless spirit which had animated us was missing. Then -we had advanced with the assuranoe of conquerors; now we stole hack like dogs to a beating. There is a good deal of rot in the terms of psychology ; but look out for its essence, I say, if it turns against you 1 However, everything proceeded so favour, ably as to give the lie to our depression. The entrance through the window, tbe opening of the safe and the compartment, the removal of .tHe pile of spurious notes, all passed as smoothly as a well-rehearsed scene. y "Here's the cussed ting," growled Mfetccles, as he took out the branded counterfeit, aod substituted in its stead one of the good notes. . Those were his last words ! There was a blaze of light from myriad electric bujbs ; a report, sharp, but not loud; Slim Maccles' swayed in his knees and toppled over witih a bullet through his brain ; while at the curtained doorway opposite stood the housekeeper, levelling a smoking revolver, with arf abandon as disagreeable as it was essentially feminine! "Don't move, you two," she said, in equable tones, "for I shoot quick!" "Too damn quick," muttered Smithers, as from convict habit, strong within him, he folded his arms and turned his face to the wall. She drew nearer, a fragile, littie woman, neutral-tinted, with anxious lines about the eyes and mouth, yet bearing herself with a dogged determination, which, I now think, indicated a past history and a present purpose, alike dubious— she drew nearer and gazed curiously on the two piles of notes weighted down by the dead man s ban(3s - «„ \ 3 j "What does all this mean?" she demanded I listened breathlessly. There was not a sound in the great house ; that sharp little report had not disturbed the old master, ..... .--_ i;-....„ .J,.,-. . ... i

the older servants; it was as safe as it was prudent to parley, and so I. told her. Her face changed, as I explained oursoheme, growing softer, .almost beautiful, with anticipation, wonder, delight. " Which one is it?" she began ; and then she stopped short, as if from second, wiser thought. "I mean," she went on, softly, " that I don't want to be hard ©n you two . men. Your companion is dead ; ycur plan: frustrated ; why should I alarm the house , and give you over into custody. Take_ then, a few of the good notes, enough for your. present wants and go your W*y," and her sharp eyes watched our movements like a cat's. If it isfas her purpose te learn beyond a possibility of mistake which pile contained the. genuine money, she dad not -have. long, to Wait. Smitbers made a grab and .was out) of thei window like a flash ; and X followed as, speedily as my mw» dscoriwis ideas would pernpit- Act hour later, we were, bajek again in town, wiser, hut. not mneji richer for our- surprising espeience. The; sequel, however, was «tiH more -surprising.. For- tiie next iew days tix-» papers were filled witii sensational accounts of the burglary ; but 'uso* one word was said ef SHm Macelesy companions,, nst one word of the counterfeits and ear scheme of substitution. The one person , free to tell,, far reasons of her own, held her peace. - What these reasons- were, of course, I de not know ; yet I can make a shrewd guess that when Mr Craigife's heirs enter into their inheritance they will find little real value in the crisp, fresh- twenties wiik-i he so lovingly hoarded in his safe. .