Pinkerton

“ Pinkerton with a gesture of disdain, he said:
"So on the strength of that cock-and-bull story you mean to hold me for that robbery?"
"Partly so."
"There isn't a word of truth in it. That man, Moriarity, is a noted liar."
"Ah!" said Mr. Pinkerton, quickly, "you know Moriarity?"
"That is—I mean—yes, I sort of know him," stammered Wittrock, in confusion; "I have heard of him."
"You are in desperate straits, Mr. Wittrock," said the detective. "In such desperate straits that you are doing the worst possible thing—denying all that is proved true. ”

“ I am a student of sculpture here from Muskegon.”
“Of sculpture?” he cried, as though that would have been his last conjecture. “Mine is James Pinkerton; I am delighted to have the pleasure of your acquaintance.”
“Pinkerton!” it was now my turn to exclaim. “Are you Broken-Stool Pinkerton?”
He admitted his identity with a laugh of boyish delight; and indeed any young man in the quarter might have been proud to own a sobriquet thus gallantly acquired. ”

“ Bangs, who was watching in the hall, to admit the Minister and the rest of the party. As Mr. Bangs withdrew, the Don stepped up to me and said:
"Mr. Pinkerton, I will give you five thousand dollars if you will leave me alone for half an hour."
I smiled, and looking at my watch, said:
"It is now seven o'clock; at ten o'clock you will be on your way to New York."
"You can have ten thousand, if you will let me go; I will pay you the cash in coin immediately."
"Your offers are useless," I replied; "I will let no guilty man escape if it can be avoided." ”

“ Pinkerton will be on our trail in forty-eight hours. The first thing they will do will be to suspect the messenger. He will be arrested, and while they are monkeying with him we must get out of the way. I told the poor devil I would write a letter to some paper, I think I said the Globe-Democrat, which would clear him, but we must make ourselves safe first.
"Dan, you must get to Leavenworth, find Cook, and have him plant what you have. Haight will go to Chicago and know what to do, while I—well—I am going south for my health." ”

“ But you've heard of Pinkerton's?”
“I've read of some folk of that name.”
“Well, you can take it from me you've no show when they are on your trail. It's not a take-it-or-miss-it government concern. It's a dead earnest business proposition that's out for results and keeps out till by hook or crook it gets them. If a Pinkerton man is deep in this business, we are all destroyed.”
“We must kill him.”
“Ah, it's the first thought that came to you! So it will be up at the lodge. Didn't I say to you that it would end in murder?”
“Sure, what is murder? Isn't it common enough in these parts?” ”

“ When I used to protest at this extravagance, “My dear Loudon,” Pinkerton would cry, “you don't seem to catch on to business principles! The prime cost of the spirit is literally nothing. I couldn't find a cheaper advertisement if I tried.” Against the side post of the cabinet there leaned a gaudy umbrella, preserved there as a relic. It appears that when Pinkerton was about to place Thirteen Star upon the market, the rainy season was at hand. ”

“ Pinkerton from the very start. People were dying about him every day of yellow fever, and when he started for Punta Gorda on a little steamer, the engineer came aboard looking as yellow as saffron, and immediately began to vomit, so that he had to be taken ashore. Then the engine broke down several times on the voyage, and the heat was insufferable.
As the boat steamed slowly into Punta Gorda it passed a small steam craft loaded with bananas. "Look," said one of the passengers to Mr. Pinkerton, not aware [222] of the nature of Mr. Pinkerton's mission, "there goes Crawford's launch now." ”

“ I cried.
“You wait till I get my irons in the fire!” returned Pinkerton. “I'm bound to be rich; and I tell you I mean to have some of the fun as I go along. Here's your first allowance; take it at the hand of a friend; I'm one that holds friendship sacred as you do yourself. It's only a hundred francs; you'll get the same every month, and as soon as my business begins to expand we'll increase it to something fitting. And so far from it's being a favour, just let me handle your statuary for the American market, and I'll call it one of the smartest strokes of business in my life.” ”

“ Pinkerton, I regret to say I do. It doesn't seem probable that a strong, hearty man would allow another man to disarm him, gag him, tie him hand and foot, get away with $100,000, and all that without a desperate struggle, and he hasn't the sign of a scratch or bruise on him."
"N-n-no, it doesn't. Still it could be done. You have him under arrest, then."
"Not exactly. He is in my office now, and apparently has no thought of trying to escape."
"Well, Mr. Damsel, I am inclined to think that this man Fotheringham knows no more of this robbery than he has told you. ”

“ Taking up the investigation with his accustomed energy, Mr. Pinkerton traced John Reno back to Seymour, Indiana, where the gang was so strongly intrenched [169] in the midst of corrupt officials and an intimidated populace that any plan of open arrest was out of the question. Recognizing this, Allan Pinkerton had recourse to the cunning of his craft. He began by stationing in Seymour a trustworthy assistant, who was instructed, on a given day and at a given hour, to decoy John Reno to the railroad-station on any pretense that might suggest itself. ”

“ Probably no living man knows more intimate details about the individual members of the underworld, those who are active criminals to-day, as well as the notorious crooks of the past, than the head of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. And every crook will tell you, what every honest man who knows Mr. Pinkerton will tell you, that when he says "Yes" there [Pg 125] is no possibility that the correct answer should be "No."
WILLIAM A. PINKERTON
Head of the Pinkerton Detective Agency New York
"I know what the average man thinks—that a real crook never turns straight. ”

“ A travelling tin-type photographer picked him up, like a haw out of a hedgerow, on a wayside in New Jersey; took a fancy to the urchin; carried him on with him in his wandering life; taught him all he knew himself—to take tin-types (as well as I can make out) and doubt the Scriptures; and died at last in Ohio at the corner of a road. “He was a grand specimen,” cried Pinkerton; “I wish you could have seen him, Mr. Dodd. He had an appearance of magnanimity that used to remind me of the patriarchs.” On the death of this random protector, the boy inherited the plant and continued the business. ”

“ Pinkerton, this is a subject that I am particularly tender upon. I think under certain circumstances I could really have made the woman my wife;" then turning to his agent, he said, "Harcout, cut it short."
"But," Harcout protested, "we can't cut it short. Mr. Pinkerton wants facts—he must have facts. Well, at one time Mr. Lyon felt a real affection for the woman, which does him honor—is no disgrace to him; but after a time began to suspect, and eventually to feel sure, that Mrs. Winslow was playing a deep game; indeed, had originally come to Rochester for that purpose ”

“ The Philadelphia [151] wife and child were taken on to Chicago, and Schwartz was placed under arrest, charged with bigamy.
Mr. Pinkerton went to the jail at once, and, wishing to keep Schwartz's confidence as far as possible, assured him that this arrest was not his work at all, but that of detectives Smith and Murray, who were, as Schwartz knew, working in the interests of the railroad people and of the Chicago "Daily News." Mr. Pinkerton told Schwartz that he still believed, as he had done all along, that Watt was the guilty man, and promised to do whatever he could to befriend Schwartz. ”

“ Pinkerton recalled that on a trip to the West, some three years previous, to investigate the case of a man arrested at Reno, Nevada, on a charge of "holding up" a faro-bank, and while stopping over in Salt Lake City, Utah, he had run across some sporting men in that city with whom he was well acquainted, and on his telling them where he was going and what his business was, one of them, whom Mr. Pinkerton had known for years, had said: "Why, the man at Reno is innocent. The men who committed that robbery are in this city. ”

“ Thus it was that I came face to face with my third destiny; for my career has been entirely shaped by these three elements,—my father, the capitol of Muskegon, and my friend, Jim Pinkerton. As for the young lady with whom my mind was at the moment chiefly occupied, I was never to hear more of her from that day forward: an excellent example of the Blind Man's Buff that we call life.
CHAPTER III. TO INTRODUCE MR. PINKERTON.
The stranger, I have said, was some years older than myself: a man of a good stature, a very lively face, cordial, agitated manners, and a gray eye as active as a fowl's. ”

“ No, you don't; for you haven't a notion of what that man, Westrel Keen, can accomplish. You haven't the slightest idea of the machinery which he controls with a delicacy absolutely faultless; with a perfectly terrifying precision. Why, man, the Pinkerton system itself has become merely a detail in the immense complexity of the system of control which the Tracer of Lost Persons exercises over this entire continent. ”

“ There was every reason, therefore, for keeping a sharp eye on the safe-expert Evans.
As he studied the case, Mr. Pinkerton recalled a circumstance that had happened in the fall of 1875. On the night of November 4, 1875, the First National Bank of Pittston, Pennsylvania, had been robbed of sixty thousand dollars, and Mr. [16] Pinkerton had gone there to investigate the case. He met a number of safe-men, it being a business custom with safe-men to flock to the scene of an important bank robbery in order to supply new safes for the ones that have been wrecked. ”

“ They have travelled much, and have carefully studied; they know the ways of the world, and avail themselves of that knowledge to enjoy some of the privileges and pleasures of civilization. Many times when they were hunted in the out-of-the-way regions of the country, they have been enjoying life as respectable gentlemen among the citizens of our Metropolitan centers. While Pinkerton's men have sought them among the forests of Clay county, Missouri, they have calmly reposed in the Grand Pacific hotel of Chicago ”

“ I think I never saw a man more of a piece; and the type was new to me; I had never before set eyes upon his parallel, and I thought instinctively of Balzac and the lower regions of the Comedie Humaine.
Pinkerton stared a moment on the intruder with no friendly eye, tore a leaf from his note-book, and scribbled a line in pencil, turned, beckoned a messenger boy, and whispered, “To Longhurst.” Next moment the boy had sped upon his errand, and Pinkerton was again facing the auctioneer.
“Two hundred dollars,” said Jim. ”

“ Then, suddenly, in April, 1889, Crawford took his departure for Central America, giving out to his friends that he was going there to assume the management of a banana plantation of sixty thousand acres, owned by his wealthy friend and benefactor.
Before Crawford sailed, however, the "shadows" had informed Mr. Pinkerton of Crawford's intention, and asked instructions. Should they arrest the man before he took flight, or should they let him go? Mr. Pinkerton realized that he [215] was dealing with a man who, if guilty, was a criminal of unusual cleverness and cunning. ”

“ Then the detective fell to thinking deeply. He folded the note carefully, and placed it in an inner pocket.
"I will retain that," he said. "Of course the coroner must be notified. This is indeed a sad case. I had no thought of such a thing when I left the depot to visit you. This will astound the neighborhood. I came from New York intending to visit Chicago, where it is thought a forger has found a hiding place. I was not employed to run him down, but thought I would place the case in the hands of the Pinkertons."
"You will not desert me in the hour of my trouble, Silas?" ”

“ Mr. Pinkerton at once recognized in Donahue a notorious thief who, to escape justice, had taken up his residence at Fort Erie, Canada, where he had opened a hotel.
The burglar also gave Mr. Pinkerton a description of a man who had visited Donahue at his hotel on several occasions, and who had the general appearance of a workman. He suspected that this man had been in some way concerned with Donahue in the Susquehanna robbery; he knew that he had resided at one time in Buffalo, New York, and worked in the shops there, and he thought that he might be then living in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. ”

“ Mr. Pinkerton's theory of the way in which this robbery was committed is that Crawford had an accomplice who had previously prepared the bogus package, and who, by previous appointment, was standing on the stairs in the express [245] office when the two messengers arrived. It has always been a question in Mr. Pinkerton's mind whether the old man Dominie Earle told the exact truth in his testimony before the bank officials. ”

“ Judd submitted to him the plan proposed by me, that he should leave Philadelphia for Washington that evening.
"But," added Mr. Judd, "the proofs that have just been laid before you cannot be published, as it will involve the lives of several devoted men now on Mr. Pinkerton's force, especially that of Timothy Webster, who is now serving in a rebel cavalry company under drill at Perrymansville in Maryland."
Mr. Lincoln at once acknowledged the correctness of this view, but appeared at a loss as to what course to pursue. ”

“ Fortunately, that same night they attempted a burglary in Milwaukee, for which they were arrested and held for ninety days. This gave the Chicago detectives abundant time to identify Bruce as the missing robber.
Mr. Pinkerton himself went at once to Milwaukee, saw Bruce in the jail, heard his story, verified its essential facts, and within two days, to his own complete disappointment, and in spite of himself, had proved a complete alibi for Bruce. To satisfy himself in this connection, Mr. Pinkerton brought conductor Ashmore and Mr. Shaw to Milwaukee, and pointed Bruce out to them ”