Reginald Wright Kauffman

“ The plates must have been removed in some way and copied. Are you really sure of Lemmell and Dodd? Mightn't they have pieced the combination together?”
“They dislike each other. Lemmell has worked for the bureau over twenty years and feels that Dodd is an upstart. Dodd's been in government service since he was fourteen years old—started as a senate page—and, though he's been with us only six months, he's got a splendid record. On his side, he calls Lemmell an old fogy and fussy and says he ought to be replaced by a younger man.” ”

“ Dodd, Mr. Lemmell and Miss Greene, my stenographer; but they are all trusted and absolutely above suspicion.”
“Oh, sure! What I want to know is how the plates were put in the safe. Miss Greene take them there?”
“Not at all. It's not her place to do it. Dodd and Lemmell went with them. Both men insisted they deposited the plates, as I directed, in the front of the main compartment. They then, in each other's presence, closed the safe, of which I had just changed the combination. According to rule, I next separately gave each man his half of the new combination.” ”

“ It was one of the laws of the great system that only three persons should have knowledge of a safe's combination; one, Farley himself, hold ing the entire key; the others, two trusted employees—in this case Messrs. Lemmell and Dodd—who guarded one half apiece. At unexpected moments, the combination was changed. The two men left the quiet office, and Mr. Farley turned to Cecilia Greene and began the dictation of routine instructions. ”

“ Secy: 10 yrs. in govt. employ; faithful, efficient, incorruptible, will never marry. On this morning of January 2d, however, Farley shrugged the doubt away. His desk was open and in order, and, as far as her work was concerned, Miss Greene was her conscientious self again.
Farley touched a couple of his desk bells. From opposite doorways two men appeared. Luther Lemmell, long in the service, was little and fussy. Grantley Dodd was a bare thirty-five, broad and prosperous looking, with a gold chain conspicuously stretched across the curve of his already expansive waistline. ”

“ CHAPTER XXI THE TREASURY NOTES THE mission of Martin P. Hoagland to Santo Domingo had its origin in the greatest shock ever received by certain officials not unconnected with the currency of the United States of America. ”