bank, Bolton Brown, arrested, though he is out on bail now. We
haven't anything directly against him, but he is suspected of
complicity on the inside, and I may say that the thing is so gigantic
that there must have been some one on the inside concerned with it.
Among other things we have found that Bolton Brown has been leading
a rather fast life, quite unknown to his fellow-officials. We know
that he has been speculating secretly in the wheat corner that went
to pieces, but the most significant thing is that he has been
altogether too intimate with an adventuress, Adele DeMott, who has
had some success as a woman of high finance in various cities here
and in Europe and even in South America. It looks bad for him
from the commonsense standpoint, though of course I'm not competent
to speak of the legal side of the matter. But, at any rate, we know
that the insider must have been some one pretty close to the head
of the By-Products Company or the By-Products Bank."
"What was the character of the forgeries?" asked Kennedy.
"They seem to have been of two kinds. As far as we are concerned
it is the check forgeries only that interest the Surety Company.
For some time, apparently, checks have been coming into the bank
for sums all the way from a hundred dollars to five thousand.
They have been so well executed that some of them have been
certified by the bank, all of them have been accepted when they came
back from other banks, and even the officers of the company don't
seem to be able to pick any flaws in them except as to the payee
and the amounts for which they were drawn. They have the correct
safety tint on the paper and are stamped with rubber stamps that
are almost precisely like those used by the By-Products Company.
"You know that banking customs often make some kinds of fraud
comparatively easy. For instance no bank will pay out a hundred
dollars or often even a dollar without identification, but they
will certify a check for almost any office boy who comes in with it.
The common method of forgers lately has been to take such a certified
forged check, deposit it in another bank, then gradually withdraw it
in a few days before there is time to discover the forgery. In this
case they must have had the additional advantage that the insider in
the company or bank could give information and tip the forger off if
the forgery happened to be discovered."
"Who is the treasurer of the company?" asked Craig quickly.
"John Carroll - merely a figurehead, I understand. He's in New York
now, working with us, as I shall tell you presently. If there is any
one else besides Brown in it, it might be Michael Dawson, the nominal
assistant but really the active treasurer. There you have another
man whom we suspect, and, strangely enough, can't find. Dawson was
the assistant treasurer of the company, you understand, not of the
bank."
"You can't find him? Why?" asked Kennedy, considerably puzzled.
"No, we can't find him. He was married a few days ago, married a
pretty prominent society girl in the city, Miss Sibyl Sanderson. It
seems they kept the itinerary of their honeymoon secret, more as a
joke on their friends than anything else, they said, for Miss
Sanderson was a well-known beauty and the newspapers bothered the
couple a good deal with publicity that was distasteful. At least
that was his story. No one knows where they are or whether they'll
ever turn up again.
"You see, this getting married had something to do with the exposure
in the first place. For the major part of the forgeries consists
not so much in the checks, which interest my company, but in
fraudulently issued stock certificates of the By-Products Company.
About a million of the common stock was held as treasury stock - was
never issued.
"Some one has issued a large amount of it, all properly signed and
sealed. Whoever it was had a little office in Chicago from which
the stock was sold quietly by a confederate, probably a woman, for
women seem to rope in the suckers best in these get-rich-quick
schemes. And, well, if it was Dawson the honeymoon has given him
a splendid chance to make his get-away, though it also resulted in
the exposure of the forgeries. Carroll had to take up more or less
active duty, with the result that a new man unearthed the - but,
say, are you really interested in this case?"
Williams was leaning forward, looking anxiously at Kennedy and it
would not have taken a clairvoyant to guess what answer he wanted
to his abrupt question.
"Indeed I am," replied Craig, "especially as there seems to be a
doubt about the guilty person on the inside."
"There is doubt enough, all right," rejoined Williams, "at least I
think so, though our detectives in Chicago who have gone over the
thing pretty thoroughly have been sure of fixing something on Bolton
Brown, the cashier. You see the blank stock certificates were kept
in the company's vault in the bank to which, of course, Brown had
access. But then, as Carroll argues, Dawson had access to them,
too, which is very true - more so for Dawson than for Brown, who
was in the bank and not in the company. I'm all at sea. Perhaps
if you're interested you'd better see Carroll. He's here in the
city and I'm sure I could get you a good fee out of the case if
you cared to take it up. Shall I see if I can get him on the wire?"
We had finished luncheon and, as Craig nodded, Williams dived into
a telephone booth outside the dining-room and in a few moments
emerged, perspiring from the closeness. He announced that Carroll
requested that we call on him at an office in Wall Street, a few
blocks away, where he made his headquarters when he was in New York.
The whole thing was done with such despatch that I could not help
feeling that Carroll had been waiting to hear from his friend in
the insurance company. The look of relief on Williams's face when
Kennedy said he would go immediately showed plainly that the
insurance man considered the cost of the luncheon, which had been
no slight affair, in the light of a good investment in the interest
of his company, which was "in bad" for the largest forgery insurance
loss since they had begun to write that sort of business.
As we hurried down to Wall Street, Kennedy took occasion to remark,
"Science seems to have safe-guarded banks and other institutions
pretty well against outside robbery. But protection against
employees who can manipulate books and records does not seem to
have advanced as rapidly. Sometimes I think it may have lessened.
Greater temptations assail the cashier or clerk with greater
opportunity for speculation, and the banks, as many authorities will
agree, have not made enough use of the machinery available to put a
stop to embezzlement. This case is evidently one of the results.
The careless fellows at the top, like this man Carroll whom we are
going to see, generally put forward as excuse the statement that the
science of banking and of business is so complex that a rascal with
ingenuity enough to falsify the books is almost impossible of
detection. Yet when the cat is out of the bag as in several recent
cases the methods used are often of the baldest and most transparent
sort, fictitious names, dummies, and all sorts of juggling and kiting
of checks. But I hardly think this is going to prove one of those
simple cases."
John Carroll Was a haggard and unkempt sort of man. He looked to
me as if the defalcations had preyed on his mind until they had
become a veritable obsession. It was literally true that they were
all that he could talk about, all that he was thinking about. He
was paying now a heavy penalty for having been a dummy and honorary
officer.
"This thing has become a matter of life and death with me," he
began eagerly, scarcely waiting for us to introduce ourselves, as
he fixed his unnaturally bright eyes on us anxiously. "I've simply
got to find the man who has so nearly wrecked the By-Products Bank
and Company. Find him or not, I suppose I am a ruined man, myself,
but I hope I may still prove myself honest."
He sighed and his eyes wandered vacantly out of the window as if he
were seeking rest and could not find it.
"I understand that the cashier, Bolton Brown, has been arrested,"
prompted Kennedy.
"Yes, Bolton Brown, arrested," he repeated slowly, "and since he
has been out on bail he, too, seems to have disappeared. Now let me
tell you about what I think of that, Kennedy. I know it looks bad
for Brown. Perhaps he's the man. The Surety Company says so,
anyway. But we must look at this thing calmly."
He was himself quite excited, as he went on, "You understand, I
suppose, just how much Brown must have been reasonably responsible
for passing the checks through the bank? He saw personally about
as many of them as - as I did, which was none until the exposure
came. They were deposited in other banks by people whom we can't
identify but who must have opened accounts for the purpose of
finally putting through a few bad checks. Then they came back to
our bank in the regular channels and were accepted. By various
kinds of juggling they were covered up. Why, some of them looked
so good that they were even certified by our bank before they were
deposited in the other banks. Now, as Brown claims, he never saw
checks unless there was something special about them and there
seemed at the time to be nothing wrong about these.
"But in the public mind I know there is prejudice against any bank
official who speculates or leads a fast life, and of course it is
warranted. Still, if Brown should clear himself finally the thing
will come back to Dawson and even if he is guilty, it will make me
the - er - the ultimate goat. The upshot of it all will be that I
shall have to stand the blame, if not the guilt, and the only way
I can atone for my laxity in the past is by activity in catching
the real offender and perhaps by restoring to the company and the
bank whatever can yet be recovered."
"But," asked Kennedy sympathetically, "what makes you think that
you will find your man, whoever he proves to be, in New York?"
I admit that it is only a very slight clue that I have," he replied
confidentially. "It is just a hint Dawson dropped once to one of
the men with whom he was confidential in the company. This clerk
told me that a long=20time ago Dawson said he had always wanted to go
to South America and that perhaps on his honeymoon he might get a
chance. This is the way I figured it out. You see, he is clever
and some of these South American countries have no extradition
treaties with us by which we could reach him, once he got there."
"Perhaps he has already arrived in one of them with his wife. What
makes you think he hasn't sailed yet?
"No, I don't think he has. You see, she wanted to spend a part of
the honeymoon at Atlantic City. I learned that indirectly from her
folks, who profess to know no better than we do where the couple are.
That was an additional reason why I wanted to see if by coming to
New York I might not pick up some trace of them, either here or in
Atlantic City."
"And have you?
"Yes, I think I have." He handed us a lettergram which he had just
received from Chicago. It read: "Two more checks have come in
to-day from Atlantic City and New York. They seem to be in payment
of bills, as they are for odd amounts. One is from the Lorraine at
Atlantic City and the other from the Hotel Amsterdam of New York.
They were dated the 19th and 20th."
"You see," he resumed as we finished reading, "it is now the 23rd,
so that there is a difference of three days. He was here on the 20th.
Now the next ship that he could take after the 20th sails from
Brooklyn on the 25th. If he's clever he won't board that ship except
in a disguise, for he will know that by that time some one must be
watching. Now I want you to help me penetrate that disguise. Of
course we can't arrest the whole shipload of passengers, but if you,
with your scientific knowledge, could pick him out, then we could
hold him and have breathing space to find out whether he is guilty
alone or has been working with Bolton Brown."
Carroll was now pacing the office with excitement as he unfolded
his scheme which meant so much for himself.
"H-m," mused Kennedy. "I suppose Dawson was a man of exemplary
habits? They almost always are. No speculating or fast living with
him as with Brown?"
Carroll paused in his nervous tread. "That's another thing I've
discovered. On the contrary, I think Dawson was a secret drug
fiend. I found that out after he left. In his desk at the
By-Products office we discovered hypodermic needles and a whole
outfit - morphine, I think it was. You know how cunningly a real
morphine fiend can cover up his tracks."
Kennedy was now all attention. As the case unrolled it was assuming
one new and surprising aspect after another.
"The lettergram would indicate that he had been stopping at the
Lorraine in Atlantic City," remarked Kennedy.
"So I would infer, and at the Amsterdam in New York. But you can
depend on it that he has not been going under his own name nor, I
believe as far as I can find out, even under his own face. I think
the fellow has already assumed a disguise, for nowhere can I find
any description that even I could recognise."
"Strange," murmured Kennedy. "I'll have to look into it. And only
two days in which to do it, too. You will pardon me if I excuse
myself now? There are certain aspects of the case that I hope I
shall be able to shed some light on by going at them at once."
"You'll find Dawson clever, clever as he can be," said Carroll, not
anxious to have Kennedy go as long as he would listen to the story
which was bursting from his overwrought mind. "He was able to cover
up the checks by juggling the accounts. But that didn't satisfy
him. He was after something big. So he started in to issue the
treasury stock, forging the signatures of the president and the
treasurer, that is, my signature. Of course that sort of game
couldn't last forever. Some one was going to demand dividends on
his stock, or transfer it, or ask to have it recorded on the books,
or something that would give the whole scheme away. From each
person to whom he sold stock I believe he demanded some kind of
promise not to sell it within a certain period, and in that way
we figure that he gave himself plenty of time to realise several
hundred thousand dollars quietly. It may be that some of the forged
checks represented fake interest payments. Anyhow, he's at the end
of his rope now. We've had an exciting chase. I had followed down
several false clues before the real significance of the hint about
South America dawned on me. Now I have gone as far as I dare with
it without calling in outside assistance. I think now we are up
with him at last - with your help."
Kennedy was anxious to go, but he paused long enough to ask another
question. "And the girl?" he broke in. "She must be in the game
or her letters to some of her friends would have betrayed their
whereabouts. What was she like?"
"Miss Sanderson was very popular in a certain rather flashy set in
Chicago. But her folks were bounders. They lived right up to the
limit, just as Dawson did, in my opinion. Oh, you can be sure that
if a proposition like this were put up to her she'd take a chance
to get away with it. She runs no risks. She didn't do it anyhow,
and as for her part, after the fact, why, a woman is always pretty
safe - more sinned against than sinning, and all that. It's a queer
sort of honeymoon, hey?"
"Have you any copies of the forged certificates?" asked Craig.
"Yes, plenty of them. Since the story has been told in print they
have been pouring in. Here are several."
He pulled several finely engraved certificates from his pocket and
Kennedy scrutinised them minutely.
"I may keep these to study at my leisure?" he asked.
Certainly," replied Carroll, "and if you want any more I can wire
to Chicago for them."
"No, these will be sufficient for the present, thank you," said
Craig. "I shall keep in touch with you and let you know the moment
anything develops.
Our ride uptown to the laboratory was completed in silence which I
did not interrupt, for I could see that Kennedy was thinking out a
course of action. The quick pace at which he crossed the campus to
the Chemistry Building told me that he had decided on something.
In the laboratory Craig hastily wrote a note, opened a drawer of
his desk, and selected one from a bunch of special envelopes which
he seemed to be saving for some purpose. He sealed it with some
care, and gave it to me to post immediately. It was addressed to
Dawson at the Hotel Amsterdam. On my return I found him deeply
engrossed in the examination of the forged shares of stock. Having
talked with him more or less in the past about handwriting I did
not have to be told that he was using a microscope to discover any
erasures and that photography both direct and by transmitted light
might show something.
"I can't see anything wrong with these documents," he remarked at
length. "They show no erasures or alterations. On their face they
look as good as the real article. Even if they are tracings they
are remarkably line work. It certainly is a fact, however, that
they superimpose. They might all have been made from the same pair
of signatures of the president and treasurer.
"I need hardly to say to you, Walter, that the microscope in its
various forms and with its various attachments is of great assistance
to the document examiner. Even a low magnification frequently
reveals a drawing, hesitating method of production, or patched and
reinforced strokes as well as erasures by chemicals or by abrasion.
The stereoscopic microscope, which is of value in studying abrasions
and alterations since it gives depth, in this case tells me that
there has been nothing of that sort practised. My colour comparison
microscope, which permits the comparison of the ink on two different
documents or two places on one document at the same time, tells me
something. This instrument with new and accurately coloured glasses
enables me to measure the tints of the ink of these signatures with
the greatest accuracy and I can do what was hitherto impossible -=20
determine how long the writing has been on the paper. I should say
it was all very recent, approximately within the last two months
or six weeks, and I believe that whenever the stock may have been
issued it at least was all forged at the same time.
"There isn't time now to go into the thing more deeply, but if it
becomes necessary I can go back to it with the aid of the camera
lucida and the microscopic enlarger, as well as this specially
constructed document camera with lenses certified by the government.
If it comes to a show-down I suppose I shall have to prove my point
with the micrometer measurements down to the fifty-thousandth part
of an inch.
"There is certainly something very curious about these signatures,"
he concluded. "I don't know what measurements would show, but they
are really too good. You know a forged signature may be of two kinds
- too bad or too good. These are, I believe, tracings. If they
were your signature and mine, Walter, I shouldn't hesitate to
pronounce them tracings. But there is always some slight room for
doubt in these special cases where a man sits down and is in the
habit of writing his signature over and over again on one stock or
bond after another. He may get so used to it that he does it
automatically and his signatures may come pretty close to
superimposing. If I had time, though, I think I could demonstrate
that there are altogether too many points of similarity for these
to be genuine signatures. But we've got to act quickly in this
case or not at all, and I see that if I am to get to Atlantic City
to-night I can't waste much more time here. I wish you would keep
an eye on the Hotel Amsterdam while I am gone, Walter, and meet me
here, to-morrow. I'll wire when I'll be back. Good-bye."
It was well along in the afternoon when Kennedy took a train for
the famous seaside resort, leaving me in New York with a roving
commission to do nothing. All that I was able to learn at the
Hotel Amsterdam was that a man with a Van Dyke beard had stung the
office with a bogus check, although he had seemed to come well
recommended. The description of the woman with him who seemed to
be his wife might have fitted either Mrs. Dawson or Adele DeMott.
The only person who had called had been a man who said he
represented the By-Products Company and was the treasurer. He had
questioned the hotel people rather closely about the whereabouts
of the couple who had paid their expenses with the worthless slip
of paper. It was not difficult to infer that this man was Carroll
who had been hot on the trail, especially as he said that he
personally would see the check paid if the hotel people would keep
a sharp watch for the return of the man who had swindled them.
Kennedy wired as he promised and returned by an early train the
next day.
He seemed bursting with news. "I think I'm on the trail," he
cried, throwing his grip into a corner and not waiting for me to
ask him what success he had had. "I went directly to the Lorraine
and began frankly by telling them that I represented the By-Products
Company in New York and was authorised to investigate the bad check
which they had received. They couldn't describe Dawson very well
- at least their description would have fitted almost any one.
One thing I think I did learn and that was that his disguise must
include a Van Dyke beard. He would scarcely have had time to grow
one of his own and I believe when he was last seen in Chicago he
was clean-shaven."
"But," I objected, "men with Van Dyke beards are common enough."
Then I related my experience at the Amsterdam.
"The same fellow," ejaculated Kennedy. "The beard seems to have
covered a multitude of sins, for while every one could recall
that, no one had a word to say about his features. However,
Walter, there's just one chance of making his identification sure,
and a peculiar coincidence it is, too. It seems that one night
this man and a lady who may have been the former Miss Sanderson,
though the description of her like most amateur descriptions
wasn't very accurate, were dining at the Lorraine. The Lorraine
is getting up a new booklet about its accommodations and a
photographer had been engaged to take a flashlight of the
dining-room for the booklet.
"No sooner had the flash been lighted and the picture taken than
a man with a Van Dyke beard - your friend of the Amsterdam, no
doubt, Walter, - rushed up to the photographer and offered him
fifty dollars for the plate. The photographer thought at first it
was some sport who had reasons for not wishing to appear in print
in Atlantic City, as many have. The man seemed to notice that the
photographer was a little suspicious and he hastened to make some
kind of excuse about wanting the home folks to see how swell he
and his wife were dining in evening dress. It was a rather lame
excuse, but the fifty dollars looked good to the photographer and
he agreed to develop the plate and turn it over with some prints
all ready for mailing the next day. The man seemed satisfied and
the photographer took another flashlight, this time with one of
the tables vacant.
"Sure enough, the next day the man with a beard turned up for the
plate. The photographer tells me that he had it all wrapped up
ready to mail, just to call the fellow's bluff. The man was equal
to the occasion, paid the money, wrote an address on the package
which the photographer did not see, and as there was a box for
mailing packages right at the door on the boardwalk there was no
excuse for not mailing it directly. Now if I could get hold of
that plate or a print from it I could identify Dawson in his
disguise in a moment. I've started the post-office trying to
trace that package both at Atlantic City and in Chicago, where I
think it must have been mailed. I may hear from them at any
moment - at least, I hope."
The rest of the afternoon we spent in canvassing the drug stores
in the vicinity of the Amsterdam, Kennedy's idea being that if
Dawson was a habitual morphine fiend he must have replenished his
supply of the drug in New York, particularly if he was contemplating
a long journey where it might be difficult to obtain.