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THE DETECTIVE OFFICER'S CHIEF "INCUBUS"--AT WINTER GARDEN
THEATRE--"HARRY DUBOIS"--AN EXPERT ROGUE EXAMINES HIS
PROSPECTIVE VICTIMS--SOME SOUTHERNERS--HARRY "INTRODUCES"
HIMSELF IN HIS OWN PECULIAR AND ADROIT WAY--HARRY AND HIS
FRIEND ARE INVITED TO THE SOUTHERNERS' PRIVATE BOX--HARRY
"BORROWS" MR. CLEMENS' DIAMOND RING, AND ADROITLY ESCAPES--MY
DILEMMA--VISIT TO HARRY'S OLD BOARDING MISTRESS--HIS
WHEREABOUTS DISCOVERED--ACTIVE WORK--A RAPID DRIVE TO PINE
STREET--A FORTUNATE LIGHT IN THE OFFICE OF THE LATE HON. SIMEON
DRAPER--A SUDDEN VISIT FOR A "SICK MAN" TO HARRY'S ROOM--HOW
ENTRANCE WAS EFFECTED--THE RING SECURED--HUNT FOR MR.
CLEMENS--A SLIGHTLY MYSTERIOUS LETTER--A HAPPY INTERVIEW.
Just before the late war broke out, and the Winter Garden Theatre being
in its prime, my friend, Henry C. P., of New Haven, Conn., being in
town, urged me to accompany him there one night to see the play. The
house was quite crowded with a more than usually fashionable set of
play-goers, many being from different parts of the land, visitors for a
time in New York. No matter where I go, to theatre, court, or church,
along Broadway crowded with its vast moving tides of humanity, or
through the streets of some half-deserted hamlet, my mind is ever on my
business; rather, ever pondering on the craft and crime of society,
symbols of which, in more or less emphatic shape, I am ever liable to
see. It is one of the greatest vexations which the detective suffers,
that the nature of his business is such that he can never fully
liberate his thoughts from dwelling upon the frailties, the follies,
and particularly the crimes, petty and felonious, of which so many of
his fellow-men are constantly being guilty. Like an incubus of dread
and darkness, these thoughts are ever weighing on his mind. He has no
peace; and the only approximate peace he can win, is to let his
thoughts drift on in the usual current, without attempting to direct
them by his will. Consequently, that night, though for a while I
enjoyed the play, studying its representations of human nature with
some delight, and being not a little pleased with the beauty of sundry
of the female _dramatis personæ_, who were rather above the average in
personal graces, my eye was wandering over the parquet, family circle,
etc., considerably. Hearing a slight noise in a part of the gallery, I
observed that three young men, probably having a "prior engagement" to
fill somewhere, were leaving the theatre,--a thing of no moment in
itself, and which I should have forgotten on the instant, only that the
vacancy they left enabled me to cast my eye a little farther on, when I
discovered a character of much interest to me--a man elegantly
apparelled, and having every outward semblance of a gentleman. At the
moment my eye first rested on him there, he was peering into one of the
boxes, and I saw him soon in the act of whispering some mystery,
apparently, into the ear of the comrade who sat by his side. The latter
person I did not know; but knowing the company he was in, I divined
that some mischief was up, for the former person was no other than a
man whom, in my detective career, I had several times encountered--an
elegant, scheming fellow, who sometimes operated on Wall Street, kept
an office at 34 Pine Street, as a real estate broker and money lender,
etc., though he was seldom there, and was as skilful a juggler and
pickpocket as any of whom New York could at that time boast. I could
not, from my then position, well see into the boxes, so I changed my
seat--through the courtesy of an old friend, who gave me his in
exchange for mine--to a point where I could watch the boxes and the two
elegant gentlemen, of whom I have spoken, without the latter's knowing
the fact. As I have intimated, the season was gay. In one of the boxes
sat two gentlemen and two ladies, the former evidently Southerners I
judged, and so I thought the ladies to be also. They were quite richly
dressed, and "sported" a large amount of richest jewelry. I was not at
a loss, as soon as I had enjoyed a good view of them, as to the nature
of the special concern which they had evidently awakened in the minds
of the two worthies whom I was watching. I felt very sure that some
plan was being devised by the latter two to make the acquaintance of
the gentlemen, and, perhaps, the ladies in the box, with an eye to
relieving them of some of their jewelry or money.
"Harry Dubois" was one of the aliases of the elegant rogue; his
friend's name I knew not, and have never learned it. I was not
surprised then, when, after a little polite leave-taking at the end of
an act, and the gentlemen left their ladies in the box, to see Harry
and friend leave their seats, and saunter out. Divining that the
gentlemen had gone into the refreshment-room, I followed, disguising
myself as I went out, by the assumption of a pair of spectacle bows, to
which was attached a false nose quite unlike my own, in order that
Harry might by no means discover me. I arrived in the refreshment-room,
and had selected out my friends of the box before Harry and his friend,
or "pal," came in. I had prepared my mind to expect some peculiarly
stealthy, circumlocutory proceeding upon the part of Harry. Perhaps he
would come only to "watch and wait" still longer; perhaps he would find
there somebody, also, who knew the gentlemen of the box, and get a
formal introduction. Indeed, I had conceived a half dozen modes of
operation on his part, when, to my astonishment, Harry, having first
cast a searching glance over the room, and giving his "pal" a knowing
touch on the elbow, rushed, with all smiles upon his face, up to the
apparently elder of the gentlemen of the box, who were at this moment
lifting glasses of wine to their lips, and exclaimed, "Pardon me, Mr.
Le Franc; but how _do_ you do? I am exceedingly glad to see you! How
long have you been on from New Orleans, my dear sir?"
The gentleman addressed looked with astonishment upon the elegantly
attired Harry, whose face was the symbol of the frankest honesty and
most certain refinement, and evidently "taken" by Harry's manner,
replied, "My dear sir, there's a mistake here, for my name is not Le
Franc; and truly, sir, I can never have known you, for I surely do not
now, and if I had I should never have forgotten you."
"Upon my honor," said Harry, "I thought you were a Mr. Le Franc, of New
Orleans. You look just like him, with whom, and others, I went on an
excursion up to Donaldsonville, three years ago, at the invitation and
expense of Bob McDonald."
"Bob McDonald? Why, he's my cousin, sir. If you know him, give me your
hand. My name, sir, is William Hale, of Savannah, and this is my
cousin, Mr. Clemens, of Mobile" (turning to his friend), "Mr. ---- Ah!
excuse me, but you have not given me your name, sir, I forgot."
Fully pleased, Harry pulled out a card case from his vest pocket, and
presented to Mr. Hale a neat card, inscribed:--
=HENRY CLARKSON DUBOIS=