A GRAND RAILWAY "PLANT."
Does the reader know that all the money taken at a railway station issent up to head-quarters every night? Such is the arrangement. The moneyis put into a box, constructed as well as may be to render peculation orrobbery on the way difficult, if not impossible, and off it is sent. An"advice" is of course also sent by the station-master or cashier fromthe particular station to the head-office. The money for paying salariesand wages is also sent in a like manner in a reverse course fromhead-quarters to the tributaries from which it originally came. Thechief station, terminus, or office, is in fact the centre of an arterialmonetary system. Every thing in the form of cash comes in there and goesfrom there.
The mode of paying wages, or at least of conveying the wages fromhead-quarters, is this. In order to guard against robbery or fraud, alist of all the porters, engine-drivers, guards, and other servants whobelong to or are allotted to each station for payment, is sent up tohead-quarters. On a given day--say Friday or Saturday--this list istaken back to the station by a clerk from the cashier or secretary'soffice, who also takes with him the sum required to pay all theseservants their wages. The clerk makes a journey from one end of the lineto the other, depositing, as he goes along, a parcel of money packed upwith the wages-list. These parcels are received from the hands of theclerk by some one who is always on the lookout at each place of deposit,with that eagerness or care men usually betray when they expect toobtain the reward of their industry. The arrival of the cash-bearer isalways either known by fixed arrangement or by a special telegram whichis sent down the line.
The reader is, I dare say, also quite unaware of the fact that, until ayear or two ago, there existed a gang of the vilest scoundrels, whoderived enormous gains by the systematic plunder of railway companies.Their modes of operation were as various as the devices of wickedingenuity could possibly make them, and their ramifications wereastonishing to the most practised detectives. Their subterfuges, plans,and arrangements furnished me with many a long and lucrative job; andvery many cases, it is fair to suppose, went undiscovered, or evenunsuspected. They brought actions for injuries never received, bypersons who were never present at collisions or smashes; they madedemands for lost parcels which, as an Irishman might be excused forsaying, had never been lost; they stole passengers' luggage; theyappropriated goods in course of transit; and they had other schemes ofplunder. So widely ramified was their machinery, that in nearly everylarge station there would be a confederate ostensibly doing thecompany's work, receiving the company's pay, and ranked among thecompany's faithful servants. On every ninth or tenth train there was aguard who had a connexion, either as principal or agent, with theplunderers. At the head-quarters of many lines of railway throughout thekingdom--in the secretary's, chief cashier's, and manager's offices ofseveral lines--they had their spies, informers, and associates.
The usefulness of these spies at head-quarters was enormous. Take thecase of a pretended accident by way of an example. An action was oncebrought against a company having its chief station in the metropolis.The plaintiff asked damages or compensation for the injuries sustainedthrough a collision. The company did not see its way to resist the claimentirely, but as they considered the amount wanted by the plaintiff tobe excessive, they thought it could be reduced by negotiation. Twothousand pounds was the sum originally asked. The plaintiff, however, inthe course of the negotiation, reduced his expectations to 1000_l._ Thiswas, his attorney said, the very lowest he would accept. The company'ssolicitors reported this one day, and were authorised to settle bypayment of 800_l._ and costs. The company's solicitors thereupon offered700_l._ as their very highest figure. If this was declined, they must,they said, fight to the end, and see what a jury would give. It was ofcourse their intention to spring 100_l._ at the last moment, rather thanlet the negotiation break down. The plaintiff's attorney, however, inreply to the offer of 700_l._, wrote back to say that he had seen hisunfortunate client, who, in order to put an end to dispute andlitigation, would take 800_l._, but not 1_s._ less; and added, that itwas useless to negotiate further if that concession were not met atonce by an assent. It did not appear, nor was it at all remarkable, thatthe negotiation should be thus conducted up to the very point at whichthe company's solicitors were empowered to settle; but the real cause ofthe plaintiff's agreement to accept 800_l._ was the information he hadreceived that that sum was the most he could hope to get without passingthrough the ordeal of a public investigation--a test the gang wouldalways yield much to avoid.
It happened, by a singularly fortuitous combination of circumstances,that I had under my vigilant eye at that time a man who was concerned ingetting up a forgery. In the course of my watch I saw letters passing toand from the secretary's office of an important railway. It was no partof my business to report the circumstance. To have done so might havespoiled the game I was playing; so I took no notice, or rather made nosign. In less than a week after the delivery of the last letter, aboutsix o'clock in the evening, my plot was ripe, and I seized my man.Extraordinary inadvertence, and wonderful care! He had destroyed onelink in the chain I was constructing with his own unconscious aid, buthe had preserved one link in another chain of equal value and utility tohis other foes. On his person I found a note, in cipher it is true, butwritten on paper which had an impression of one of the company's seals.
The cipher was, moreover, not so very hard to decipher. A friend, towhose skill I paid a deserved compliment in my former volume, soonunravelled that mystery.
Would the reader like to guess what the letter contained? It was atranscript in cipher of the minute of the board in relation to that caseof damage and compensation! A confederate of the gang, or at least oneof its spies, actually held a confidential situation in the secretary'soffice, so near to the heart of the company's innermost secrets that hecould copy the minutes from the book in which their resolutions wererecorded. It was under this guidance the plaintiff instructed theattorney, employed by the gang for that action, to take his stand upon800_l._ precisely, and it was through this infamous betrayal of thecompany's confidence that the plunderers got the money.
Of course I now handed the document over to the company. The money had,however, been paid. My prisoner was found guilty on another charge, sothat it was not requisite to prosecute _him_ for the railway fraud. Theclerk was also not prosecuted. He escaped that fate under the shelter ofhis respectable connexions. He solemnly assured the directors that hehad not participated in the plunder, that the forger was not one of hisregular associates, that he had learned the cipher, but as an amusement,playfully, and that he merely told him the effect of the board'sresolution in order that he might induce his friend, the plaintiff (whohe supposed had been indeed hurt), not to persist in his excessivedemand. The directors believed, or affected to believe, this story.Perhaps they did not like it to transpire that fraud and villany hadnestled in their head-quarters, and so near to the very centre of theiradministration. However that may have been, I know that theyreprimanded, censured, and dismissed the clerk, and that they abstainedfrom his prosecution.
When this young gentleman, who had copied the minute, was discharged,the company imagined no doubt that they had weeded out the fraudulentelements which tainted their confidence. How great their mistake waswill now appear. The matter I am about to speak of occurred only abouttwelve months after the episode just narrated.
It so happened that, at the date of this grand "plant," a clerk attachedto the chief cashier's office, whose duty it was to convey the wagesdown the main line, had arranged to take his annual month's holiday andto start on Friday--the day on which he had always delivered out themoney.
"What is to be done about the wages, sir, this week?" the clerk inquiredof the chief cashier.
"Oh, that's easily managed, Wilson," replied that gentleman; "you mustpay on Thursday."
"Thank you, sir. But shall I telegraph to the stations and tell them wepay this week on Thursday?"
"That may be as well, Wilson," added the chief
cashier.
Now, whether any message was handed to the telegraph-clerk by Wilson, ornot, is a mystery yet unsolved. He says that he did so. Thetelegraph-clerk says he did not. Between these conflicting statementsthere hangs a painful suspicion to this day. It would seem only probablethat the liar was a confederate of the gang, but that is not a certaininference. The written message may have been handed by Wilson to one ofhis fellow-clerks in the chief cashier's office, in a confusion orexcitement resulting from his impending holiday; or it may have beeninadvertently placed aside by the telegrapher, and one of his associatesmay have destroyed it in order to favour the criminal enterprise whichits suppression (from whatever cause arising) did render possible.
The board of directors could not, and perhaps could not be reasonablyexpected to judge between the conflicting declarations of the twoclerks, so they dismissed both from their situations, and thought theyhad done all which impartial justice and their duty to the shareholdersrequired.
The only certain fact is a negative one. The telegraphic message was notsent. The wages were looked for, and looked for in vain, on the Friday.
Wilson, laden with a good round sum of money, went down the line onThursday, as he had arranged with his chief. He went, as ill luck wouldhave it, according to his promise in the telegram, by an afternoonexpress, and, as if the elements favoured the fraud, a heavy autumnalmist, nearly amounting to a fog, lasted during the whole of his journey;although I don't know that events would have taken any other form orcolour if the day had been distinguished by sunshine.
As Wilson approached each station the train slackened speed, accordingto usage when he travelled by it on such an errand, and he put out hishead from the carriage in which he enjoyed a separate compartment. Assoon as it appeared he was greeted by a friend--or at least some one whoknew his features very well.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Wilson. You're early this week. Never too soon totake money. Hope you'll enjoy your holiday, Mr. Wilson."
These sentences embody the pleasant wishes of his quondam friends, andwith slight variations confirm the letter, as well as the substance, ofall the greetings he received.
As each friend so greeted the clerk he took the money designed for aparticular station, and in double quick time the train was again inmotion.
In some cases the train didn't stop at all. The money was dropped outmuch in the way that mail bags are dropped; an attendant being on thisThursday, as on previous Fridays, in readiness to meet the expectedboon.
At one station--it was a large station--a man, who was there patientlywaiting to receive the cash from Mr. Wilson, was disappointed. An oldacquaintance caught a glimpse of the cash-clerk as the train slackenedspeed.
After a moment's shaking of hands Wilson offered the station-clerk themoney.
"Here it is," said Wilson.
"What?" inquired the other.
"The screw."
"It's only Thursday."
"Yes; I'm off to-morrow for my holiday."
"Oh! very well. It's just as welcome to-day as to-morrow, I dare say;but why didn't you say you were coming to-day? 'Pon my word, I wasn'tlooking out for you; and what an awful lark it would have been if youhad had to take the money back to London!"
"I did telegraph on Monday."
"The d--l you did! The gaffer never told me any thing about it. It'sjust like him; but never mind, I'm mum about his carelessness. He's agood sort."
The train moved on again, and the expectant thief went empty away.
From another station the money was lost. That is to say, it reachedneither the hands for which it was intended by the company's cashier,nor those who laid a plan to divert it into other channels. It went in adirection that neither party contemplated.
The train did not stop at this station, and a man was there to receivethe money, but his movements had, he thought, been noticed. He wascautious--perhaps needlessly timid. He thought that as the trainapproached two faces were peering at him from the station-master'soffice. So he turned, went into the station, asked when the nextdown-train which stopped at that station would arrive, and sneaked away.
Wilson arrived at this station in due course, and saw what he took to bea man in waiting for him. Unluckily the wheels did not properly bite therails, owing to the damp and their slipperyness, so that he had notsufficient time for observation, although the condition of theatmosphere rendered careful notice doubly requisite. Into the hands, ashe supposed, of the official in waiting, the incautious (and I think Imust, after all fair allowances, say very negligent) clerk dropped hispacket, which lay there unnoticed until morning.
An old man and woman, passengers by the market train, then saw it,picked it up, took it home, said nothing, but inserted it in a hole upthe cottage chimney for a long while; after which they informed theparson of the parish that an uncle of the husband's mother had sent thismoney to them. It was the amount of a legacy. The clergyman thought itremarkable that this money should be received abruptly, without hisknowing a word about any previous correspondence with lawyers; but theparson was not a suspicious man, and he made no inquiries.
The sum, although not large (only about 53_l._), was very much more thanthe usual weekly apportionment to the station where it was dropped. Thewages there were not more than 8_l._ per week. There was, however, a sumdue from the company to a cattle-dealer, as compensation for theunpublished destruction of a part of his freight; and this was forwardedalong with the wages to the station-master, with strict directions aboutthe form of the receipt he was to take for it.
The clergyman advised that the money should be laid out under theguidance of Messrs. Seal and Delivery, highly respectable solicitors inthe neighbouring town of H----. He gave an introduction to thosegentlemen by a letter, which explained the matter as it had beenexplained to him; and this introduction, and his explanation, saved allinquiries as to the source of the funds, which they profitably investedfor the childless couple, who will never enjoy a penny of it.
The two miscarriages I have mentioned were the only failures of the planof the gang to capture one whole week's wages throughout the line of theGreat ---- Railway Company.
Next day (Friday) Mr. Wilson went on his holiday trip to Paris. Thecompany's servants were expecting him, as usual--except at the onestation to which a misadventure had taken the money intended for itsuse. It is needless to say that no Mr. Wilson and no money reachedeither of these places from London, as expected. Until rather late inthe afternoon, when the chief cashier's office was closed, and thatexalted functionary and all his clerks had gone home, nothing was saidabout the affair. It had not indeed until then become very remarkable;but as soon as the fact became the subject of particular notice, it roseto the magnitude of a grievance, and threatened to become a scandal.
"We've had no money, and ain't likely to get none till to-morrow," saida porter at one of the extremest stations to the guard of an up-train.
"Oh, bosh; don't come that, you know. I sha'n't lend you anothershilling in a hurry," retorted the guard, who had two days before lentthat small amount to the friendly porter.
"'Pon my soul, we ain't," rejoined the porter; and he appealed to hisfellow-servants for a corroboration, which they supplied.
"It will be all right to-morrow," said the guard. "I suppose the chiefcashier has got a headache and hasn't been to the office, or Wilson hasgot the belly-ache, or some fine thing or other. Well, it's lucky for memy old woman isn't without a pound; so she can go to market, if we areas bad off at our station as you are here; and I suppose we're all inthe same pickle."
The porters were less philosophical. All their domestic and personalarrangements were planned on the theory of a week's wages on Friday, andno other day. The wives might have been allowed to postpone the purchaseof the Sunday joint and the rest of the needful week's supply ofprovision, but every man had engagements which could not be so easilydeferred. Every Friday night the porters assembled at a "public" tospend a convivial hour. Was this enjoyment to be sacrificed, or evenpostponed?
It was more than human nature, cast in the railway-portermould, could endure without protests as loud as they were deep. Werethey to be laughed at, and jeered at, and told that the company wasinsolvent, that their masters couldn't pay their wages? It was too bad.Hadn't they feelings as well as a secretary, or a general manager, or adirector, or the chairman of a board? That was what they would like toknow. They meant to say it was shameful, scandalous, atrocious, andabominable, and worthy of harsher terms of description. This is not onlywhat they meant to say, it is what they did say.
During the night the news had circulated up and down the line, and overall its tributaries. In the morning it was known to the secretary andthe chief cashier. The circumstances of the case were so peculiar, thatthese leading functionaries did not feel themselves competent to dealwith it. The secretary hastened to confer with the chairman of theboard, who again consulted two of his colleagues, who happened to be inTown, and, in consequence, certain steps were taken.
In the first place a cheque was drawn upon the company's bankers for theamount they had been robbed of--exactly 2310_l._ 18_s._ 6_d._; and aclerk was despatched to all the stations for the satisfaction andcomfort of all the indignant servants, who had now grown clamorous fortheir wages.
Wilson's conduct was the topic of serious consideration. Could he haverun away with the money? How could the robbery have been effectedwithout his participation or connivance? What was his previouscharacter? What sort of references did he bring to the company when hefirst entered its service, now five years ago? The latter questions wereanswered satisfactorily; the former were not. The chief cashier echoed ageneral opinion when he declared that he did not think Wilson capable ofsuch a villanous and wholesale robbery. Yet the chairman of the boardand the secretary did not see how the thing could have been perpetratedwithout his connivance, or, they thought, indeed without his activeparticipation. They asked again and again, How could it have been donein despite of his vigilance? They searched the papers, and examined the"Clerks' Reference Book" to see what sort of references he gave whenengaged as one of their servants. Nothing could be more satisfactorythan these. Their distinctness, emphasis, and verisimilitude were, itwould seem, an adequate guarantee for his fidelity in any place. Yetagain and again these very inquiries landed them upon the question, Howcould it have happened without at least his connivance? His mode oflife, his habits, and his manners, conversation, tone of thought, andknown tastes, were repugnant to the theory of his criminality. Yetagain, here the chairman of the board ventured to say that he had heardof rascals who covered the most nefarious designs, and even found theiropportunities for the commission of crime, in the well-sustained outwardshow of virtue. He was absolutely sure that that fellow Wilson was atthe bottom, if not also at the top, of the crime.
The solicitors to the company were instructed to take such steps as theymight think fit in the case. They consulted me, and I gave it as mydecided opinion that the facts were as consistent with the innocence ofthe clerk as with his guilt. This was a view of the matter which had notoccurred to the solicitors. Lawyers have a kind of second instinct,which always makes them lean to the dark side of conduct and of events.Of criminal lawyers this is especially true. A regular Old-Baileypractitioner cannot understand a theory of innocence. It would be farmore easy to convince any judge or jury of the guiltlessness of anaccused man or woman, than it would that able and accomplished gentlemanwith the hooked nose and guttural voice, who is known as the "thieves'attorney-general," in the City of London. But what does he care aboutthe guilt or innocence of his clients? Literally nothing. Under thegenial influence of a fee, he will speak as eloquently (in his own andin some other person's opinion) and contend as loudly that his client isreally guiltless, whether he be so or not. If any thing, as he has oftenhad occasion to say, he likes to have a confession of crime from theaccused, because then he knows that the client is not humbugging him; herelies upon a knowledge of the worst; he is sure that no facts are beingconcealed from him; and he can tell how far it is safe to carry hisobjurgations or his cross-examination of witnesses. The company'ssolicitors were, it is true, not men of this precise stamp. Still, theyhad in their professional career seen so very much of the corrupt andevil in mankind, and so very little of the higher traits of humannature, that they were always ready to accept unfavourable hypotheses inexplanation of human conduct, and slow to receive opposite theories intheir place. They were hard to convince that Wilson _might_ be innocentof all participation in the robbery. At length, however, after carefullyweighing all the reasons I advanced against the immediate arrest andaccusation of the clerk, they admitted it was just possible that he didnot aid the conspirators and thieves otherwise than by his gross andculpable negligence.
I speedily ascertained how and where Wilson intended to spend hisholiday. It was arranged that I should follow him. If, when I overtookhim, he consented to return with me, I was not to legally arrest him.In case he should, however, refuse, or manifest any decidedunwillingness to return, warrants for his seizure in Paris and hisrendition were procured, and placed in the hands of an ordinarydetective officer, who accompanied me, and had instructions to obey mydirections.
Thus armed, we proceeded to Paris. To discover the suspected clerk wasnot difficult. It was one of the easiest tasks I ever had allotted me. Ifound out the hotel he put up at. He was not in when we arrived there,somewhat early in the evening. I left my companion with the warrants atthe hotel, while I went further, in quest of Mr. Wilson.
I had a special motive for this part of my little arrangement. I did notthink my man would return during my absence from the hotel. I thought itmost likely--as I knew my way about Paris, was acquainted with theinstitutions of the gay capital, knew I could get aid from the Frenchpolice in my search, and for other reasons--that I should bring Mr.Wilson back to the hotel, a prisoner in fact, although under no formaldetention. In case I did not discover him out of doors, I resolved toreturn alone to the hotel in good time--in all likelihood to meet himthere. I wanted to have the first word with him, and, if I could, tohave that word in the absence of my fellow-traveller, clothed with somuch authority.
And why, the reader may ask, did you want to take this advantage of thelaw's proper servant or officer? I did not want any such advantage. Iwould have given him an advantage, which might have served his turn atScotland Yard, if I could have done so with what I considered fairnesstowards the suspected. I did not wish the circumstances of his arrest toprejudice him with his masters, and it might have been before a criminaltribunal. My experience of human nature and of society had suggested tome that this young man might perhaps, when so far from the scene of hislabours, beyond, as he supposed, the eyes and ears of his employers, andin a holiday mood, visit some places, not thought proper places by manyright-minded folks, of whom I am, at least in this respect, one. As Ifelt that the weight of suspicion, before evidence of guilt, alreadybore with undue force upon the clerk, I thought it wrong to let theweight of another element (however fair in itself) be added to theburden of prejudice. If I had then been, as I have on other occasionsoften been, employed to watch leisure movements and scan the holidaypursuits of a clerk, so that his masters might by my report determinewhether or not he were fit to hold a position of trust, I should havehad no desire to screen the incidents of Mr. Wilson's visit to Paris.Here I saw or thought I saw it my duty to bring him back to London, inorder that he might render such explanations as he could about aparticular crime. To do this effectually, I argued that it wasdesirable, for his sake truly, but also for the interests of justice,that he should encounter no prejudice which the clerks' reference book,his antecedents, and his general conduct did not warrant. This, I hopethe reader will see, was but an act of simple justice to the suspected.Let me add, that I foresaw, if the clerk were really innocent, but ifprejudice led to his wrongful arrest, the true culprits would have hadan effective warning to destroy any clue while their pursuers were onthe wrong track. Whatever the reader may think, I am candid enough tosay, will not al
ter my conviction that I acted so far prudently andjustly.
I found Wilson, costumed a little _outre_, in a "fast" dancing-room ofthe French capital. A gendarme pointed him out as a new arrival. Aninspection of my photograph satisfied me of his identity.
I accosted him as "Mr. Wilson?"
"That's my name."
"I know it perfectly well. I want to speak with you."
"Who are you? What's your name? What have you got to say to me?"
"If you step aside to the other end of the gallery, and leave thispretty little lady here, I'll tell you."
"You be--"
I stopped the remainder of the sentence by a look which terrified him.
I whispered in his ear that I wanted him, and should, if he did not obeyme, call upon the police, who were in force in and about this haunt offolly and vice, to arrest him, on a charge of robbing his employers,the ---- Railway Company, of 2310_l._ 18_s._ 6_d._; but that if hefollowed me back to his hotel, and from thence to London, he would havean opportunity of rendering any explanation of the case which lay in hispower.
He extricated himself from his frail companion, and we proceededtogether to the end of the gallery, where conversation, unheard by thedisinterested, was possible; and I told him in greater detail thecircumstances of the robbery. He naturally denied all knowledge of theaffair; said he was entirely unable to account for it; and, although itwas plain to see the terror inspired by a bare suspicion against him, heexpressed an ardent wish to return with me to England, and lend all theassistance he could in the discovery of the culprits.
I explained my reasons for not allowing my friend with the warrants toarrest Wilson. He was very grateful. I told him that if he followed meout I would allow him to make his way, under my eye, to one of the leastobjectionable of the cafes on the Boulevards, where I should take himinto my custody. The poor wretch was glad enough to avail himself ofthis privilege.
I telegraphed my success that night. By an early train next morning wetook our journey homewards, and arrived in London the same evening indue course. Mr. Wilson consented to become my guest for the evening, anduntil either the stress of duty compelled me to hand him over to thepolice, or I had the pleasure of announcing that he was no longer underrestraint.
The day after my return to London there was a solemn conference at thehead-quarters of the ---- Railway. That august assembly, the board, hadbeen hastily convened, and had a special meeting. The whole matter wasinvestigated by the light of facts now within the knowledge of itsofficers and advisers. Other minor and auxiliary conferences were heldin ante-rooms between myself and the leading partner of the firm whoenjoyed the lucrative and honourable appointment of solicitors to thecompany. The results of the whole deliberations put together were, aresolution not to prosecute the suspected clerk, because there was notenough evidence at hand to warrant a conviction; and another resolution,that as there was more than enough evidence to justify a strongsuspicion of his complicity in the affair--as there was abundant proofof gross negligence--the clerk Wilson should be dismissed.
One victim not being sufficient to compensate for the loss of so muchmoney, the two other clerks--one in the chief cashier's and one in thetelegraph department--were also deprived of their situations.
The most unsatisfactory part of the affair, to my mind, was theabandonment of all further search for the culprits. No why or whereforewas given me in explanation of this abrupt and extraordinary decision. Isuspect the cause was an unwillingness to allow so palpable a sign ofadministrative weakness at headquarters, and from the very centre to theextreme circumference of the financial operations of the company, to betrumpeted throughout the world. I have known much heavier losses quietlysubmitted to for a like reason by joint-stock companies and by greatmercantile firms. When one of the oldest, wealthiest, and most highlyreputed discount-houses in the City of London discovered that its chiefacting partner had advanced a young firm of traders a vast sum of moneyupon the security of forged dock-warrants, it determined not toprosecute the scoundrels, because the defrauded gentlemen, knowing theirown importance, feared that if it should become known in Lombard Streetthat they, the great, old, wealthy, and "knowing" house, had been so letin, all the floating securities in the London markets would bediscredited, a panic would seize all the money-changers, metropolitanbankers would be involved in trouble that might upset a lot of them, thegovernor and company of the Bank of England would have to guard itsissues, limit to the minimum its credits, and, in fact, that through theone gigantic fraud a radius of half a mile round the Royal Exchange(where the potentates of gold, who are the arbiters and controllers ofmanufacture all over England and beyond this Queendom, do congregate)might become a scene of despair, ruin, or chaos. Am I overstating thecase? Let the reader who thinks so peruse the evidence given by Mr.Chapman, of the well-known house of Overend, Gurney, and Company, at theLondon Bankruptcy Court, and in the Central Criminal Court, in theproceedings taken against Messrs. ----. Or, if he cannot readily learnthe particulars of this noted case, let him ask any friend who knows thehistory of British banking and British trade during the last twentyyears, and that friend will supply him with at least as many instancesin which splendid swindles, forgeries, and frauds have not beeninvestigated--ay, or, being investigated and proved, have been secretlycondoned, for such reasons as my imagination assigns to the directors ofthe ---- Railway Company for their decision in the present case. No manof the world, no one who has had much experience in practical business,will gainsay the probability of my suggested motive. I do not say thatthe reason hinted at was the operative reason in this instance, but Ithink it was, and I say that I think it was; and the intelligent readercan form his own opinion as to the soundness or hollowness of myhypothesis.
It may be satisfactory to further explain (as I have very much pleasurein doing), that although not instructed to hunt down the perpetrators ofthis crime, I was requested to assist the officials of the company inframing such arrangements as would make it impossible to repeat arobbery like that so successfully accomplished. With the aid of thecompany's officers, I did this; and I have the satisfaction of knowingthat if any further designs of the same description were afterwardsconceived, they were never carried out. A survey of the obstacles totheir realisation must have warned off the conspirators.
The reader who desires to see poetical justice summarily inflicted onevery wrong-doer as soon as the wrong has been committed, may have beengrieved to learn that a gang of villains escaped their merits. I sharedthat feeling. I do not believe that Wilson was in the fraud, although Icannot undertake to say that the evidence of my faith is so perfect as Icould wish. He, however, was utterly and hopelessly ruined, by thedismissal from his situation under circumstances of so grave suspicion;and if his worst offence was negligence (as I suppose), he has beenterribly punished. The last time I saw him (not six months ago) he wasselling penny packets of "stationery for the million" on a stall in oneof the popular marts at the East End of London. The reader lastmentioned may obtain some proper comfort in the evidence I can supply asto the ultimate vindication of justice upon the persons of the whole ofthe gang concerned in this great "plant." I hunted down four of them notlong since, and one volunteered a statement of the facts of that case(as each of the four did), in the hope of being admitted to theprivileges of what the Irish call an approver. During this conversation(after he had completed his confession of the offence he was thencharged with) he also told me that he had taken part in this affairalong with all his present companions in crime,--who were the last ofthe set who had up to that date eluded justice.