Mr. Pinkerton is called upon.-- Mr. Harcout, a
ministerial-looking Man, with an After-dinner Voice,
appears.-- A Case with a Woman in it, as is usually the
case.-- Mr. Pinkerton hesitates.-- An anxious Millionaire.
One hot July afternoon in 186-, I was sitting in my private office at my
New York Agency, located then, and now, at the corner of New Street and
Exchange Place, in the very heart of the money and stock battles of
Gotham, pretty well tired out from a busy day's work in carrying to
completion some of the vast transactions that had accumulated during the
war, and which were in turn waiting for my professional services to
unravel.
It had been a terribly hot day, and the city seemed like a vast caldron
filled with a million boiling victims; and now that the day's labor was
nearly over, I was principally employed in an attempt to keep cool, but
finding it impossible with everybody about me, settled myself in my
easy-chair at the window to watch the Babel of brokers below.
From such an altitude, where one can look down soberly upon these madmen
and see their wild antics, when for the moment they are absolutely
insane in their thirst for gold, never halting at the most extreme
recklessness even though they know it may compel wholesale ruin, it is
easy to realize how isolated cases occur where the whole human nature
yields to greed, and sweeps on to the certain accomplishment of crime
for its satisfaction.
Just after a particularly heavy "rush" had been made, resulting in a few
broken limbs and numberless tattered hats and demolished garments, and
the bulls and bears were gathered about in knots excitedly talking over
their profit and loss, and wiping the great beads of perspiration, from
their lobster-like faces, I noticed an important-looking gentleman turn
into New Street from the direction of Broadway, and after edging through
the crowds, occasionally halting to ask a question in the politest
possible manner--the replies and gestures to which seemed to indicate
that he was seeking my agency, which afterwards proved true--this vision
of precision and politeness passed from my sight into Exchange Place,
and in a few moments after I was informed that a gentleman desired to
see me on very important business.
After ascertaining who the gentleman was, and already knowing him to be
a harmless sort of an adventurer, and under the particular patronage of
a wealthy Rochester gentleman, I admitted him and he was introduced as
Mr. Harcout, of Rochester and New York.
Mr. Harcout was a character in his way, and deserving of some notice. He
was a tall, heavily-built, obese gentleman of about forty-five years of
age, impressive, important, and supremely polite. His face was a strange
combination of imbecility and assumption; while his head, which was
particularly developed in the back part, indicating low instincts that
were evidently only repressed as occasion required, was consistent with
the formation of his square, flat forehead, which sloped back at a
suspiciously sharp angle from a pair of little, gray, expressionless
eyes, which from the lack of intelligence behind them would look you out
of face without blinking. His nose was straight and solidly set below,
like some sharp instrument, to assist him in getting on in the world.
His lips, though not unusually gross or sensual, had a way of opening
and closing, during the pauses of conversation with a persistency of
assertion that had the effect of keeping in the mind of the average
listener that great weight should be attached to what Mr. Harcout had
said, or was about to say; and at the same time, as also when he
patronizingly smiled, which was almost constantly, disclosed a set of
teeth of singular regularity and dazzling whiteness. A pair of very
large ears, closely-cut and neatly-trimmed hair, and a whitish-olive
complexion that suggested sluggish blood and a lack of fine
organization, complete the sketch of his face, but could never give the
full effect of the grandeur of his assumption and manners, which were a
huge burlesque on chivalric courtliness. As he entered the room his
gloved hand swept to the rim of his faultless silk hat, and removed it
with an indescribably graceful gesture that actually seemed to make the
hat say, "Ah! my very dear sir, while I belong to a gentleman of the
vastest importance imaginable, be assured that we are both
inexpressibly honored by this interview!" Nor were these all of his
strikingly good points. He was a man that was always dressed in a suit
of the finest procurable cloth, most artistically fitted to his
commanding figure, and never a day passed when there was not an
exquisite favor in the neat button-hole of his collar. When he had
become seated in a most dignified and engaging manner, he had a neat
habit of showing his little foot encased in patent leather so shining
that, at a pinch, it might have answered for a mirror, by carelessly
throwing his right leg over his left knee, so that he could keep up an
incessant tapping upon his boot with the disengaged glove which his left
hand contained; and, with his head thrown slightly back and to one side,
emphasized his remarks in a graceful and convincing way with the digit
finger of his soft white right hand. Altogether he would have passed for
a person of considerable importance and good commercial and social
standing; but to one versed in character-reading he gave the impression
that he might at one time have been an easy-going clergyman, who had
lapsed into some successful insurance or real estate agency that had
been unexpectedly profitable; or, at least, was a man who had thoroughly
and artistically acquired the science of securing an elegant livelihood
through the confidence he could readily inspire in others.
"Ah! Mr. Pinkerton, I am very glad to see you--very glad to see you; in
fact, I take it as a peculiar honor, though my business with you is of
an unpleasant nature," said Mr. Harcout, settling into his chair with a
kind of bland and amiable dignity.
I saw that he was making a great effort to please me, and told him
pleasantly that it was quite natural for people to visit me on
unpleasant business.
"Thank you, thank you," he replied in his rich, after-dinner voice, that
seemed to come with his winning smile to his lips through a vast measure
of good-fellowship and great-heartedness. "I feel that I am occupying a
peculiar position, both painful and embarrassing to me: first, as the
friend and agent of a wealthy man who is also an acquaintance of yours,
and operates on the Produce Exchange, here; and second, in being obliged
to ascertain whether you will take our case without your becoming too
fully aware of the particulars, in the event of your refusal."
"Well," said I encouragingly, highly enjoying his embarrassment and
assumed importance, "if you will give me a general outline of the
matter, I will take it into consideration; and, in any event, you can
rest assured that our walls have no ears to what our patrons have to say
within them."
"Well, then," replied Harcout with a winning smile, "to be honest with
you, Mr. Pinkerton, there's a woman in our case; yes--though I'm very
sorry to say it--the case is almost entirely a woman case."
"In that event, Mr. Harcout, I must plainly say to you that I don't like
those cases at all. I have all the business that I can attend to, and
even more than I sometimes desire; and I really think you had better
secure the services of some other person."
"Pray don't say so; pray don't say so, Mr. Pinkerton. Ah! what _could_
induce you to take the case?"
"No sum of money," I replied, "unless I was fully assured that it was
all right--that is, had the right on your side. Almost without exception
these cases with women in them, where men become jealous of their
mistresses, mistresses of their men, wives of their husbands, husbands
of their wives, or when the lively and vigorous mother-in-law lends
spice to life, and, indeed, all those troubles arising from social
abuses, are a disgrace to every one connected with them."
Harcout seemed quite disappointed that I did not express more avidity to
transact the business he proffered, but continued in his blandest
manner:
"Still, supposing, although we were not altogether in the right, we were
endeavoring to defend ourselves against a vile woman who had manipulated
circumstances so that she had us greatly in her power?"
"I should still feel a great reluctance in taking the case. All my life
I have had one steady aim before me, and that has been to purify and
ennoble the detective service; and I am sure that all this sort of
business is degrading in the extreme to operatives engaged upon it."
"Very good, very good. But, Mr. Pinkerton, supposing the person pursued
was worth two or three millions of dollars; that after the parties had
met in a casual way, and, through a strange and unexplainable feeling of
admiration mingled with awe which she had compelled in him, she had
acquired a familiarity with his habits, business, and vast wealth, and
had from that time schemingly begun a plan of operations to entrap him
into marrying her, working upon his rather susceptible temperament
through his peculiar religious belief, in order to gain power over him,
and then, failing to secure him as a husband, had for some time pursued
a system of threats and quiet, persistent robbery, constantly becoming
more brazen and impudent, until he could bear it no longer, when he had
refused to see her or submit to further blackmail, whereupon she had
heartlessly attempted his social and financial ruin, by bringing a suit
against him for $100,000 damages for breach of promise of marriage?"
This extended conundrum flushed Harcout, and his magnificent silk
handkerchief came gracefully into use to very gently and delicately
absorb the perspiration that had started upon his porous face.
"Mr. Harcout," I still insisted, "I should then require to be
unqualifiedly assured that the woman in question was not a young woman
who had really been led to believe the promise of some man old enough to
be her father, and who should accept the consequences of his
indiscretion philosophically."
"Exactly, exactly," responded Harcout, quite uneasily, though with an
evident endeavor at pleasantry; "and quite noble of you, too, Mr.
Pinkerton! Really, I had not anticipated finding such delicate honor
among detectives!" and he laughed a low, musical laugh which seemed to
come gurgling up from his capacious middle.
I told him he might term it "delicate honor" or whatever he liked; that
I had made thorough justice a strict business principle, and found that
it won, too; but that, with the understanding that he had fairly
represented the case, I would give it my consideration and apprise him
of my decision the next day, giving him an appointment for that purpose;
after which, while verbosely expressing the hope that I would assist
him, he bowed himself out in a very impressive manner, passed into the
street, which was now nearly as quiet as the Trinity Church-yard close
by, and immediately went to the St. Nicholas, where he flourishingly
reported the interview to the anxious millionaire, who thanked fortune
for such a powerful and majestic friend.