A MAN OF CRAFT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7434, 21 June 1902, Page 2

A MAN OF CRAFT.

At the age of eighteen, born of respectable parents, and fairly schooled, Edward Minturn (writes CB. Lewis, in tho '?' Boston Globe") made a resolve and dung to it for twenty years without once letting go of the object in view. He coolly and deliberately planned to work and toil, and deceive and play the hypocrite for half a lifetime, in order to enjoy the other half on stolen anoney. '. He was living in Birmingham, and! he bent all bis energies toward securing a position in a Birmingham bank. He waa a bright young man t and one to favourably impress i and he eventually secured a clerkship. . ' In a year he bad been twice promoted, and bad gained the goodwill of the manager. Further promotion came slowly, as there were trusted employees ahead of him, but death came to make vacancies and help him along, and at the end of ten years be was assistant cashier. 'During the ten years Minturn lived a life of strict probity. He might have had a score of enemies watching his conduct day and night, but they could have found nothing to smirch him. He was quoted as an example to other young meaij,' and he made many good friends. At the end of fifteen years he was made cashier, and the Board of Directors tendered him a complimentary dinner, and pre- j sented him with 2500 dollars as a further token of its esteem. Fifteen years of patient toiling and plotting had brought their reward, 'but the goal had not yet been reached. It would false at least five years more { as be DID NOT INTEND TO SPOIL ALIi BY MOVINO TOO EAST. Minturn took a two weeks' vacation when made cashier. He said that he was going* to Rutland to pass the time, with a relative, but he lied about it. He journeyed south to Tewksbury, and between that « town and Cheltenham he put ap at a roadside inn under a false naane, ' and claimed to be from London. Under the name of Clyde he bought- a small farm, and installed an old woman as housekeeper, and ber brother as manager. The farm was four miles from a railroad station, and about the same distance from a town, and on a oross-road wliere there was but little travel. There were few neighbours about, and they -were -not overcurious. If there was any gossip it finally settled down in the belief that Olyde was an eccentric to buy those sterile aores, and expect that tbe old couple would make more than a living off them. He made a few necessary repairs, courted contact with tbe people about, and let it be understood that he should oome down occasionally. About once in three months he appeared at a lat© hour Saturday night, remained until Sunday evening, and then went away. The wages of the two people were paid quarterly, and there was no complaint from Minturn over poor crops. For five long years Minturn came and went, and people grew used to the sight of him, and looked upon him as a resident. No one. dtoubted that he lived ia London, and no one questioned that be waa an insurance agent. At the bank in Birmingham everything went well, and the directors now and then congratulated each other upon their advancement of the young man to his present position, One Monday morning a thunderclap came. The trusted cashier and 400,000 dollars were missing. He had robbed the bank after office hours on Saturday night, and consequently t HAD A LONG STABT. • Not until it was known that he. had taken a cab at the very door of the hank, and driven to the depot, 'having a- huOky satchel with him, would any of the bank officials doubt his honesty. Indeed, they defended him when he had been gone three days, and even suggested that be was the victim of a plot. However, the cashier was the only man , who could have got at the money, and as it was missing, and he could not be heard of, the fact that he had betrayed his trust after twenty years of integrity was forced upon all. The police were set to work at- once, and a large reward was offered to incite their zeal, and there was hope that the robber would be overhauled. When two weeks had passed, the reward was increased to 25,000d01, and at the end of four ifc was increased to 50,000d01, but Minturn seemed to have VANISHED OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH. Then it was that a newspaper having a resume of the case fell into the hands of Martha Whitely j a kitchenmaid in a family in Ledbury. On the Saturday evening that the bank had been robbed she had been coming from a brief visit to her sister at Bedditch, and had travelled to Evesham Junction in a compartment with a man whose actions and speech had struck her queerly. He had addressed her in broken German, but he was unmistakably an Englishman. At her first eight of him she was sure he was clean-shaven, but she was hardly seated when he appeared with"side- whiskers j and seemed to be ten years older than before. She noticed that he held a newspaper to shield his face as much as possible, and was evidently anxious not to be scanned too closely. He had with him a bulky ' satchel, and by the time the junction was reached he was asleep, or feigning to be so. Martha Whitely was a bright girl, and when she left Jthe train she had her mind made up that her fellow-traveller was either a detective or a fugitive. She said nothing to , anyone, however, and the incident had slipped from her mind when the article in the paper recalled it. Then she believed the stranger to- be none other than the defaulting cashier, and &c stated her suspicions to a constable. The officer was supposed to be a thickheaded man, but he proved his wit on this occasion. He reasoned that as the fugitive had not been heard of at any seaport or prominent inland town he must be in hiding in the country. He also figured that Minturn would not go far, for FEAB OF BEIN&- NOTICED. Starting in at Evesham Junction, he drove aoutb with hoarse and buggy, and kept his ears and eyes open. He pre- < tended to be looking for a brother of his who had! disappeared, and whenever he made inquiry he described Minturn aa he ought to have looked without the whiskers. It. took him just four days to do what fifty detectives had failed to do in a mjonth. j He found a farmer who scratched hia head for a while, and i3ien replied tbat the description fitted a London landowner named Clyde living only three miles away. Within four hours the cashier had been arrested at his farmhouse. He had gone straight there with the plunder, every dollar of which was recovered. To excuse his long stay, he claimed to be out of health, but his intentions were to wait for yet another month, and then quietly leave the country with the boodle. The reward waa justly divided between the' young woman and the constable. It was Minturn himself who confessed that he had worked for twenty long years with no other end but a great robbery in view, and that he efliould have come to grief through a ohance meeting with a kitchenmaid borders on the ridiculous, and proves that luck runs in queer grooves.