During the greater portion of a very busy life, I have been actively
engaged in the profession of a Detective, and hence have been brought in
contact with many men, and have been an interested participant in many
exciting occurrences.
The narration of some of the most interesting of these events, happening
in connection with my professional labors, is the realization of a
pleasure I have long anticipated, and is the fulfillment of promises
repeatedly made to numerous friends in by gone days.
"THE EXPRESSMAN AND THE DETECTIVE,"
and the other works announced by my publishers, are all _true stories_,
transcribed from the Records in my offices. If there be any incidental
embellishment, it is so slight that the actors in these scenes from the
drama of life would never themselves detect it; and if the incidents
seem to the reader at all marvelous or improbable, I can but remind him,
in the words of the old adage, that "Truth is stranger than fiction."
ALLAN PINKERTON.
CHICAGO, October, 1874.