occasion you surprise to know that Birks of the Secret Service was,
after all, 'on deck' the night that the Wire Devils fell into your
hospitable hands? Yes, it is quite true—I am Birks. The newspaper
biographies of the Hawk, the apparent authenticity of his prison record
and release from Sing Sing was but 'inspired' fiction supplied from
'authoritative' sources. The East was being swamped with one of
the cleverest counterfeit notes that the Federal authorities, popularly
called the Secret Service, had ever had to deal with; and it was evident
at once that the gang at work possessed an organisation against which
ordinary methods would be of no avail. Facts in the possession of the
Federal authorities indicated that the headquarters of the gang was
in the West, and, indeed, as you later concluded yourself, that the
so-called Wire Devils, who were just beginning to operate over the wires
around Selkirk, were the men we wanted. That, because of my knowledge of
telegraphy, I was detailed to the case, and how, almost at the outset, I
was fortunate enough to secure the key to their cipher, need not be gone
into here. Knowing their code, then, it would have been a simple enough
matter to have run one or two of them to earth at almost any time, but
that was not enough; it was necessary that the entire organisation, and
especially its head, should be caught. The rôle of the Hawk furnished
the solution to the problem. It enabled me to frustrate their plans,
while at the same time I was working on the case, and it enabled me to
do this without arousing their suspicions that the Secret Service was on
the track of their counterfeiting plant. 'Birds of a feather,' you
called us, Mr. Mac-Vightie; and 'birds of a feather' I am going to
ask you to allow us, in the public's eyes, and particularly in the
eyes of those you now have behind the bars, to remain.
“I am sure you will readily acquiesce in this. You will instantly
see that my usefulness would be destroyed if the Hawk became known and
recognised as Birks of the Secret Service by every crook in the country,
as would result if he now figured in the case in his proper person. And
this leads to a word of explanation in reference to the final act in our
little drama of two nights ago. I had discovered the headquarters of the
gang, and I had found that cleverest of unhung crooks, the Ladybird,
to be in command. The plan outlined to you from Washington was at my
suggestion, and was simply a trap to collect them all into one net; a
trap, I might add, which they walked into, as they believed, with their
eyes wide open, for they were well aware of every move you had made. The
purpose of the money in banknotes accompanying the gold shipment was to
supply the Hawk with a reason for his appearance on the scene. It was
not altogether a question of coincidence that the train was stopped just
outside Con-more; nor that the chase led you to the farmhouse and the
Ladybird. The rest you know. It was necessary that I should be captured
and arrested in their presence, be caught in fact with the 'goods,'
and also that my escape should in their eyes appear equally genuine, if
I was to preserve the Hawk's identity. As for this last point, things
turned out a little differently than I had planned, for I had expected
to be taken to jail with the common herd, and there had intended to
arrange some sort of an escape to keep up appearances. As it turned out,
however, I am sure you will agree with me that there are worse things at
times than a trapdoor in a cellar floor!
“I think that is all—save for one little detail. I would suggest
that you account for the recovery of the 'swag' and the black valise
through the fact that, dissatisfied with your first search of that room
over our friend Seidel-berger's saloon, you searched it again more
minutely, found a parcel-room check ingeniously hidden, say, behind the
wall bracket of the electric-light fixture—and by so doing permit me
to remain,
“Ever and most sincerely yours,
“The Hawk.” THE END