Uncle Sam Detective

usiness. Take bank accounts, for instance. Many people have money in the bank which lies there

very respectable boarding-house in the prosperous little town of Ne

hurch who, being a widower, boarded with Mrs. Hudson. "I, for instance, have manag

have on deposit," insisted M

" asserted a buxom widow who

adies and cigars to the gentlemen who will set down the exact amounts of their inactive accounts

ext day they asked for the figures, and each had won his reward. Gard seemed chagrin

t to him. The inactive accounts of the Firs

of dollars. Special agents of the Department of Justice knew that an official of the bank had been trading heavily in Wall Street and that he had lost. Gard, a member of this new detective

money had been stolen, told what accounts were still intact. Yet he had never been inside the bank, had seen none of its books, had consulted with nobody familiar with them, had rece

tectives from three different services on the night, two months later, that

iddle class criminals who live through the trade of burglary-a calling that is sometimes refined to art. And the police department would not have come into possession of a certain tip

king was New Beaufort. He had tipped the matter off to the police, and hence McCord's presence i

he various national banks of his district, checking up assets and liabilities, inquiring into the value of the paper held by the banks. Two weeks before Conrad Compton gave his party Newton had been in New Beaufort and had g

g faculties. He was not able to sleep well of nights, and in his sleep the various accounts of the New Beaufort bank insisted on visualizing themselves. Finally t

mounts of money that have been run through it, are out of all proportion to the

onrad Compton, with whom he had built up a friendship through years of association in the

iners of the treasury department. The New York office of this service, as a matter of daily routine, received the information that David Lorance, ass

ce. His windows at the grocery store looked out upon the side door of the bank opposite. He was bland and inconspicuous, but he was

ainment and to charity. The members of the board of aldermen often met at Stone Crest to discuss those matters that had to do with the well-being of the town. Teas were given there whenever its charitable women were inaugurating som

His features were of a perfect regularity and the whole face was so small as to give it somewh

up from New York for the occasion, as the ices were served. He thought the banker was a bit paler than usual and his natural nervousness seemed somewhat accentuated. Once

banker, turning again to his guests, "I seem to have

ishments that might contain safes worth raffling. Occasionally his eye fell upon the lights in the house of the banker on the hill, and wandered to the chief financial es

to the small town lovers, had one by one winked themselves out. The owl car of the trolley line that ran through the village had deposited its last late revelers at ele

cedented in New Beaufort. They would have gone home at eleven, but the banker insisted that they remain for further entertainment on the part of his New York musicians. One song called forth another and t

se who had walked up the gray macadam drive were just setting out on foot when the clatter as of a bunch of giant fire crackers called their attention to the vi

me the shout fro

, he had seen an automobile, with no lamp showing, creep through the quiet back street, purr stealthily into the alley back of the bank and stop behind a small building that shut off his view. Half an hour

ut in the village. Of the dispersing group on the hill, every one ran for a nearer view of the fire. The musicians, the servants, the master of the house hims

ill on which he had smoked and hastily entered the banker's house. Arriving, he seemed to know exactly what he wanted. He hurried through

m without even examining them. Next he began further exploration. When he found the banker's bedroom he seemed satisfied. On the back of a chair was a coat, evidently that which Compton had worn until he dressed for the evening. Gard thru

ed a telegram to the department a

lty. Lorance probably not implicated. Bank burned

a

tment of Justice. Gard had come to New Beaufort with but a suspicion that Lorance, the assistant cashier, was

isplay of money, was of sturdy farmer stock. On the other hand the investigator immediately picked up the facts that the cashier, Com

unts. He knew that a dishonest employee of a bank, in appropriating money, had to charge it to some account to make the books balance. The large, inactive a

found, in the first place, that the buying of the Compton home was profligate and evidently wasteful. He found, further, that the bills were always paid without question and by check. Knowing of an

e personal checks were being juggled by the cashier Gard, as the grocer's bookkeeper, found a pretext to send to the bank for a record of some personal checks of Compton's which he had handled a few days earlier. The call was made while Compton was out to lunch, and the checks could

s. The system is the simplest in the world. When a depositor hands in his money, the cashier enters the amount in the pass book of that individual as a receipt. Then, instead of entering the money to the depositor's credit, the cashier puts it into his pocket. Thus there is nothing to show for the transaction but the entry in t

ant cashier of the bank for the record of them in the absence of Compton. They did not show on the account of the grocery

into the condition of the bank and to determine the manner of its looting whe

three events most to be expected when the funds of a bank have been misappropriated. The young special agent was watching for any of thes

An hour after closing time at the bank he saw Compton come out of the side door with two books of the institution under his arm. He could make

ng to agreement, had set it on fire that the incriminating records of the cashier might be destroyed. The wily cashier, however, had made sure that the books that showed his guilt would not be found, in case the plan was not an entire success. He had r

is personal checks. This latter was the account that had dwelt in the mind of Newton, the bank examiner. The letters that Gard had found in the banker's pockets, though unsigned and mysteriously phrased, were later traced

nd threatened to lynch him. So determined was their onslaught that the sheriff spirited the prisoner away. In desperation he confessed his crimes and exonerated Lorance, the assistant c