VIII
THE FORGER
We were lunching with Stevenson Williams, a friend of Kennedy's, at theInsurance Club, one of the many new downtown luncheon clubs, where thenoon hour is so conveniently combined with business.
"There isn't much that you can't insure against nowadays," remarkedWilliams when the luncheon had progressed far enough to warrant atentative reference to the obvious fact that he had had a purpose ininviting us to the club. "Take my own company, for example, theContinental Surety. We have lately undertaken to write forgeryinsurance."
"Forgery insurance?" repeated Kennedy. "Well, I should think you'd bedoing a ripping business--putting up the premium rate about every dayin this epidemic of forgery that seems to be sweeping over the country."
Williams, who was one of the officers of the company, smiled somewhatwearily, I thought. "We are," he replied drily. "That was preciselywhat I wanted to see you about."
"What? The premiums or the epidemic?"
"Well--er--both, perhaps. I needn't say much about the epidemic, as youcall it. To you I can admit it; to the newspapers, never. Still, Isuppose you know that it is variously estimated that the forgers of thecountry are getting away with from ten to fifteen million dollars ayear. It is just one case that I was thinking about--one on which theregular detective agencies we employ seem to have failed utterly sofar. It involves pretty nearly one of those fifteen millions."
"What? One case? A million dollars?" gasped Kennedy, gazing fixedly atWilliams as if he found it difficult to believe.
"Exactly," replied Williams imperturbably, "though it was not done allat one fell swoop, of course, but gradually, covering a period of somemonths. You have doubtless heard of the By-Products Company of Chicago?"
Craig nodded.
"Well, it is their case," pursued Williams, losing his quiet manner andnow hurrying ahead almost breathlessly. "You know they own a bank outthere also, called the By-Products Bank. That's how we come to figurein the case, by having insured their bank against forgery. Of courseour liability runs up only to $50,000. But the loss to the company aswell as to its bank through this affair will reach the figure I havenamed. They will have to stand the balance beyond our liability and,well, fifty thousand is not a small sum for us to lose, either. Wecan't afford to lose it without a fight."
"Of course not. But you must have some suspicions, some clues. You musthave taken some action in tracing the thing out, whatever is back ofit."
"Surely. For instance, only the other day we had the cashier of thebank, Bolton Brown, arrested, though he is out on bail now. We haven'tanything directly against him, but he is suspected of complicity on theinside, and I may say that the thing is so gigantic that there musthave been some one on the inside concerned with it. Among other thingswe have found that Bolton Brown has been leading a rather fast life,quite unknown to his fellow-officials. We know that he has beenspeculating secretly in the wheat corner that went to pieces, but themost significant thing is that he has been altogether too intimate withan adventuress, Adele De-Mott, who has had some success as a woman ofhigh finance in various cities here and in Europe and even in SouthAmerica. It looks bad for him from the commonsense standpoint, thoughof 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 onepretty close to the head of the By-Products Company or the By-ProductsBank."
"What was the character of the forgeries?" asked Kennedy.
"They seem to have been of two kinds. As far as we are concerned it isthe check forgeries only that interest the Surety Company. For sometime, apparently, checks have been coming into the bank for sums allthe way from a hundred dollars to five thousand. They have been so wellexecuted that some of them have been certified by the bank, all of themhave been accepted when they came back from other banks, and even theofficers of the company don't seem to be able to pick any flaws in themexcept as to the payee and the amounts for which they were drawn. Theyhave the correct safety tint on the paper and are stamped with rubberstamps that are almost precisely like those used by the By-ProductsCompany.
"You know that banking customs often make some kinds of fraudcomparatively easy. For instance no bank will pay out a hundred dollarsor often even a dollar without identification, but they will certify acheck for almost any office boy who comes in with it. The common methodof forgers lately has been to take such a certified forged check,deposit it in another bank, then gradually withdraw it in a few daysbefore there is time to discover the forgery. In this case they musthave had the additional advantage that the insider in the company orbank could give information and tip the forger off if the forgeryhappened 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 oneelse besides Brown in it, it might be Michael Dawson, the nominalassistant but really the active treasurer. There you have another manwhom we suspect, and, strangely enough, can't find. Dawson was theassistant 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 prettyprominent society girl in the city, Miss Sibyl Sanderson. It seems theykept the itinerary of their honeymoon secret, more as a joke on theirfriends than anything else, they said, for Miss Sanderson was awell-known beauty and the newspapers bothered the couple a good dealwith publicity that was distasteful. At least that was his story. Noone knows where they are or whether they'll ever turn up again.
"You see, this getting married had something to do with the exposure inthe first place. For the major part of the forgeries consists not somuch in the checks, which interest my company, but in fraudulentlyissued stock certificates of the By-Products Company. About a millionof the common stock was held as treasury stock--was never issued.
"Some one has issued a large amount of it, all properly signed andsealed. Whoever it was had a little office in Chicago from which thestock was sold quietly by a confederate, probably a woman, for womenseem 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 tomake his get-away, though it also resulted in the exposure of theforgeries. Carroll had to take up more or less active duty, with theresult that a new man unearthed the--but, say, are you reallyinterested in this case?"
Williams was leaning forward, looking anxiously at Kennedy and it wouldnot have taken a clairvoyant to guess what answer he wanted to hisabrupt question.
"Indeed I am," replied Craig, "especially as there seems to be a doubtabout the guilty person on the inside."
"There is doubt enough, all right," rejoined Williams, "at least Ithink so, though our detectives in Chicago who have gone over the thingpretty thoroughly have been sure of fixing something on Bolton Brown,the cashier. You see the blank stock certificates were kept in thecompany's vault in the bank to which, of course, Brown had access. Butthen, as Carroll argues, Dawson had access to them, too, which is verytrue--more so for Dawson than for Brown, who was in the bank and not inthe company. I'm all at sea. Perhaps if you're interested you'd bettersee Carroll. He's here in the city and I'm sure I could get you a goodfee out of the case if you cared to take it up. Shall I see if I canget him on the wire?"
We had finished luncheon and, as Craig nodded, Williams dived into atelephone booth outside the dining-room and in a few moments emerged,perspiring from the closeness. He announced that Carroll requested thatwe call on him at an office in Wall Street, a few blocks away, where hemade his headquarters when he was in New York. The whole thing was donewith such despatch that I could not help feeling that Carroll had beenwaiting to hear from his friend in the insurance company. The look ofrelief on Williams's face when Kennedy said he would go immediatelyshowed plainly that the insurance man considered the cost of theluncheon, which had been no sligh
t affair, in the light of a goodinvestment in the interest of his company, which was "in bad" for thelargest forgery insurance loss since they had begun to write that sortof business.
As we hurried down to Wall Street, Kennedy took occasion to remark,"Science seems to have safeguarded banks and other institutions prettywell against outside robbery. But protection against employees who canmanipulate books and records does not seem to have advanced as rapidly.Sometimes I think it may have lessened. Greater temptations assail thecashier or clerk with greater opportunity for speculation, and thebanks, as many authorities will agree, have not made enough use of themachinery available to put a stop to embezzlement. This case isevidently one of the results. The careless fellows at the top, likethis man Carroll whom we are going to see, generally put forward asexcuse the statement that the science of banking and of business is socomplex that a rascal with ingenuity enough to falsify the books isalmost impossible of detection. Yet when the cat is out of the bag asin several recent cases the methods used are often of the baldest andmost transparent sort, fictitious names, dummies, and all sorts ofjuggling and kiting of checks. But I hardly think this is going toprove one of those simple cases."
John Carroll was a haggard and unkempt sort of man. He looked to me asif the defalcations had preyed on his mind until they had become averitable obsession. It was literally true that they were all that hecould talk about, all that he was thinking about. He was paying now aheavy penalty for having been a dummy and honorary officer.
"This thing has become a matter of life and death with me," he beganeagerly, scarcely waiting for us to introduce ourselves, as he fixedhis unnaturally bright eyes on us anxiously. "I've simply got to findthe 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 maystill prove myself honest."
He sighed and his eyes wandered vacantly out of the window as if hewere 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 hasbeen out on bail he, too, seems to have disappeared. Now let me tellyou 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 mustlook at this thing calmly."
He was himself quite excited, as he went on, "You understand, Isuppose, just how much Brown must have been reasonably responsible forpassing the checks through the bank? He saw personally about as many ofthem as--as I did, which was none until the exposure came. They weredeposited in other banks by people whom we can't identify but who musthave opened accounts for the purpose of finally putting through a fewbad checks. Then they came back to our bank in the regular channels andwere accepted. By various kinds of juggling they were covered up. Why,some of them looked so good that they were even certified by our bankbefore they were deposited in the other banks. Now, as Brown claims, henever saw checks unless there was something special about them andthere seemed at the time to be nothing wrong about these.
"But in the public mind I know there is prejudice against any bankofficial who speculates or leads a fast life, and of course it iswarranted. Still, if Brown should clear himself finally the thing willcome back to Dawson and even if he is guilty, it will make methe--er--the ultimate goat. The upshot of it all will be that I shallhave to stand the blame, if not the guilt, and the only way I can atonefor my laxity in the past is by activity in catching the real offenderand perhaps by restoring to the company and the bank whatever can yetbe recovered."
"But," asked Kennedy sympathetically, "what makes you think that youwill 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 repliedconfidentially. "It is just a hint Dawson dropped once to one of themen with whom he was confidential in the company. This clerk told methat a long time ago Dawson said he had always wanted to go to SouthAmerica and that perhaps on his honeymoon he might get a chance. Thisis the way I figured it out. You see, he is clever and some of theseSouth American countries have no extradition treaties with us by whichwe could reach him, once he got there."
"Perhaps he has already arrived in one of them with his wife. Whatmakes you think he hasn't sailed yet?"
"No, I don't think he has. You see, she wanted to spend a part of thehoneymoon at Atlantic City. I learned that indirectly from her folks,who profess to know no better than we do where the couple are. That wasan additional reason why I wanted to see if by coming to New York Imight 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 letter-gram which he had justreceived from Chicago. It read: "Two more checks have come in to-dayfrom 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 Cityand the other from the Hotel Amsterdam of New York. They were dated the19th and 20th."
"You see," he resumed as we finished reading, "it is now the 23rd, sothat there is a difference of three days. He was here on the 20th. Nowthe next ship that he could take after the 20th sails from Brooklyn onthe 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 Iwant you to help me penetrate that disguise. Of course we can't arrestthe whole shipload of passengers, but if you, with your scientificknowledge, could pick him out, then we could hold him and havebreathing space to find out whether he is guilty alone or has beenworking with Bolton Brown."
Carroll was now pacing the office with excitement as he unfolded hisscheme 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 withBrown?"
Carroll paused in his nervous tread. "That's another thing I'vediscovered. On the contrary, I think Dawson was a secret drug fiend. Ifound that out after he left. In his desk at the By-Products office wediscovered hypodermic needles and a whole outfit--morphine, I think itwas. You know how cunningly a real morphine fiend can cover up histracks."
Kennedy was now all attention. As the case unrolled it was assuming onenew and surprising aspect after another.
"The lettergram would indicate that he had been stopping at theLorraine in Atlantic City," remarked Kennedy.
"So I would infer, and at the Amsterdam in New York. But you can dependon it that he has not been going under his own name nor, I believe asfar as I can find out, even under his own face. I think the fellow hasalready assumed a disguise, for nowhere can I find any description thateven I could recognise."
"Strange," murmured Kennedy. "I'll have to look into it. And only twodays 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 toshed some light on by going at them at once."
"You'll find Dawson clever, clever as he can be," said Carroll, notanxious to have Kennedy go as long as he would listen to the storywhich was bursting from his overwrought mind. "He was able to cover upthe checks by juggling the accounts. But that didn't satisfy him. Hewas after something big. So he started in to issue the treasury stock,forging the signatures of the president and the treasurer, that is, mysignature. Of course that sort of game couldn't last forever. Some onewas going to demand dividends on his stock, or transfer it, or ask tohave it recorded on the books, or something that would give the wholescheme away. From each person to whom he sold stock I believe hedemanded 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 torealise several hundred thousand dollars quietly. It may be that someof the forged checks represented fake interest payments. Anyhow, he'sat the end of his rope now. We've had an exciting chase. I had followeddown several false clues before the real significance of the hint aboutSouth America dawned on me. Now I have gone as far as I dare with itwithout calling in ou
tside assistance. I think now We are up with himat last--with your help."
Kennedy was anxious to go, but he paused long enough to ask anotherquestion. "And the girl?" he broke in. "She must be in the game or herletters 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 inChicago. 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 aproposition like this were put up to her she'd take a chance to getaway with it. She runs no risks. She didn't do it anyhow, and as forher part, after the fact, why, a woman is always pretty safe--moresinned against than sinning, and all that. It's a queer sort ofhoneymoon, hey?"
"Have you any copies of the forged certificates?" asked Craig.
"Yes, plenty of them. Since the story has been told in print they havebeen pouring in. Here are several."
He pulled several finely engraved certificates from his pocket andKennedy 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 toChicago 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 anythingdevelops."
Our ride uptown to the laboratory was completed in silence which I didnot interrupt, for I could see that Kennedy was thinking out a courseof action. The quick pace at which he crossed the campus to theChemistry Building told me that he had decided on something.
In the laboratory Craig hastily wrote a note, opened a drawer of hisdesk, and selected one from a bunch of special envelopes which heseemed to be saving for some purpose. He sealed it with some care, andgave it to me to post immediately. It was addressed to Dawson at theHotel Amsterdam.
On my return I found him deeply engrossed in the examination of theforged shares of stock. Having talked with him more or less in the pastabout handwriting I did not have to be told that he was using amicroscope to discover any erasures and that photography both directand by transmitted light might show something.
"I can't see anything wrong with these documents," he remarked atlength. "They show no erasures or alterations. On their face they lookas good as the real article. Even if they are tracings they areremarkably fine work. It certainly is a fact, however, that theysuperimpose. They might all have been made from the same pair ofsignatures of the president and treasurer.
"I need hardly to say to you, Walter, that the microscope in itsvarious forms and with its various attachments is of great assistanceto the document examiner. Even a low magnification frequently reveals adrawing, hesitating method of production, or patched and reinforcedstrokes as well as erasures by chemicals or by abrasion. Thestereoscopic microscope, which is of value in studying abrasions andalterations since it gives depth, in this case tells me that there hasbeen nothing of that sort practised. My colour comparison microscope,which permits the comparison of the ink on two different documents ortwo places on one document at the same time, tells me something. Thisinstrument with new and accurately coloured glasses enables me tomeasure the tints of the ink of these signatures with the greatestaccuracy and I can do what was hitherto impossible--determine how longthe 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 believethat whenever the stock may have been issued it at least was all forgedat the same time.
"There isn't time now to go into the thing more deeply, but if itbecomes necessary I can go back to it with the aid of the camera lucidaand the microscopic enlarger, as well as this specially constructeddocument camera with lenses certified by the government. If it comes toa show-down I suppose I shall have to prove my point with themicrometer measurements down to the fifty-thousandth part of an inch.
"There is certainly something very curious about these signatures," heconcluded. "I don't know what measurements would show, but they arereally too good. You know a forged signature may be of two kinds--toobad or too good. These are, I believe, tracings. If they were yoursignature and mine, Walter, I shouldn't hesitate to pronounce themtracings. But there is always some slight room for doubt in thesespecial cases where a man sits down and is in the habit of writing hissignature over and over again on one stock or bond after another. Hemay get so used to it that he does it automatically and his signaturesmay come pretty close to superimposing. If I had time, though, I thinkI could demonstrate that there are altogether too many points ofsimilarity for these to be genuine signatures. But we've got to actquickly in this case or not at all, and I see that if I am to get toAtlantic City to-night I can't waste much more time here. I wish youwould keep an eye on the Hotel Amsterdam while I am gone, Walter, andmeet 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 thefamous seaside resort, leaving me in New York with a roving commissionto do nothing. All that I was able to learn at the Hotel Amsterdam wasthat a man with a Van Dyke beard had stung the office with a boguscheck, although he had seemed to come well recommended. The descriptionof the woman with him who seemed to be his wife might have fittedeither Mrs. Dawson or Adele DeMott. The only person who had called hadbeen a man who said he represented the By-Products Company and was thetreasurer. He had questioned the hotel people rather closely about thewhereabouts of the couple who had paid their expenses with theworthless slip of paper. It was not difficult to infer that this manwas Carroll who had been hot on the trail, especially as he said thathe personally would see the check paid if the hotel people would keep asharp watch for the return of the man who had swindled them.
Kennedy wired as he promised and returned by an early train the nextday.
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 whatsuccess he had had. "I went directly to the Lorraine and began franklyby telling them that I represented the By-Products Company in New Yorkand was authorised to investigate the bad check which they hadreceived. They couldn't describe Dawson very well--at least theirdescription would have fitted almost any one. One thing I think I didlearn and that was that his disguise must include a Van Dyke beard. Hewould scarcely have had time to grow one of his own and I believe whenhe was last seen in Chicago he was clean-shaven."
"But," I objected, "men with Van Dyke beards are common enough." Then Irelated my experience at the Amsterdam.
"The same fellow," ejaculated Kennedy. "The beard seems to have covereda multitude of sins, for while every one could recall that, no one hada word to say about his features. However, Walter, there's just onechance of making his identification sure, and a peculiar coincidence itis, too. It seems that one night this man and a lady who may have beenthe former Miss Sanderson, though the description of her like mostamateur descriptions wasn't very accurate, were dining at the Lorraine.The Lorraine is getting up a new booklet about its accommodations and aphotographer had been engaged to take a flashlight of the dining-roomfor the booklet.
"No sooner had the flash been lighted and the picture taken than a manwith a Van Dyke beard--your friend of the Amsterdam, no doubt,Walter,--rushed up to the photographer and offered him fifty dollarsfor the plate. The photographer thought at first it was some sport whohad reasons for not wishing to appear in print in Atlantic City, asmany have. The man seemed to notice that the photographer was a littlesuspicious and he hastened to make some kind of excuse about 'wantingthe home folks to see how swell he and his wife were dining in eveningdress.' It was a rather lame excuse, but the fifty dollars looked goodto the photographer and he agreed to develop the plate and turn it overwith some prints all ready for mailing the next day. The man seemedsatisfied and the photographer took another flashlight, this time withone of the tables vacant.
"Sure enough, the next day the man with a beard turned up for theplate. The photographer tells me that he had it all wrap
ped up ready tomail, just to call the fellow's bluff. The man was equal to theoccasion, paid the money, wrote an address on the package which thephotographer did not see, and as there was a box for mailing packagesright at the door on the boardwalk there was no excuse for not mailingit directly. Now if I could get hold of that plate or a print from it Icould identify Dawson in his disguise in a moment. I've started thepost-office trying to trace that package both at Atlantic City and inChicago, where I think it must have been mailed. I may hear from themat any moment--at least, I hope."
The rest of the afternoon we spent in canvassing the drug stores in thevicinity of the Amsterdam, Kennedy's idea being that if Dawson was ahabitual morphine fiend he must have replenished his supply of the drugin New York, particularly if he was contemplating a long journey whereit might be difficult to obtain.
After many disappointments we finally succeeded in finding a shop wherea man posing as a doctor had made a rather large purchase. The name hegave was of course of no importance. What did interest us was thatagain we crossed the trail of a man with a Van Dyke beard. He had beenaccompanied by a woman whom the druggist described as rather flashilydressed, though her face was hidden under a huge hat and a veil."Looked very attractive," as the druggist put it, "but she might havebeen a negress for all I could tell you of her face."
"Humph," grunted Kennedy, as we were leaving the store. "You wouldn'tbelieve it, but it is the hardest thing in the world to get an accuratedescription of any one. The psychologists have said enough about it,but you don't realise it until you are up against it. Why, that mighthave been the DeMott woman just as well as the former Miss Sanderson,and the man might have been Bolton Brown as well as Dawson, for all weknow. They've both disappeared now. I wish we could get some word aboutthat photograph. That would settle it."
In the last mail that night Kennedy received back the letter which hehad addressed to Michael Dawson. On it was stamped "Returned to sender.Owner not found."
Kennedy turned the letter over slowly and looked at the back of itcarefully.
"On the contrary," he remarked, half to himself, "the owner was found.Only he returned the letter back to the postman after he had opened itand found that it was just a note of no importance which I scribbledjust to see if he was keeping in touch with things from hishiding-place, wherever it is."
"How do you know he opened it?" I asked.
"Do you see those blots on the back? I had several of these envelopesprepared ready for use when I needed them. I had some tannin placed onthe flap and then covered thickly with gum. On the envelope itself wassome iron sulphate under more gum. I carefully sealed the letter, usingvery little moisture. The gum then separated the two prepared parts.Now if that letter were steamed open the tannin and the sulphate wouldcome together, run, and leave a smudge. You see the blots? Theinference is obvious."
Clearly, then, our chase was getting warmer. Dawson had been inAtlantic City at least within a few days. The fruit company steamer toSouth America on which Carroll believed he was booked to sail under anassumed name and with an assumed face was to sail the following noon.And still we had no word from Chicago as to the destination of thephotograph, or the identity of the man in the Van Dyke beard who hadbeen so particular to disarm suspicion in the purchase of the platefrom the photographer a few days before.
The mail also contained a message from Williams of the Surety Companywith the interesting information that Bolton Brown's attorney hadrefused to say where his client had gone since he had been released onbail, but that he would be produced when wanted. Adele DeMott had notbeen seen for several days in Chicago and the police there were of theopinion that she had gone to New York, where it would be pretty easyfor her to pass unnoticed. These facts further complicated the case andmade the finding of the photograph even more imperative.
If we were going to do anything it must be done quickly. There was notime to lose. The last of the fast trains for the day had left and thephotograph, even though it were found, could not possibly reach us intime to be of use before the steamer sailed from Brooklyn. It was anemergency such as Kennedy had never yet faced, apparently physicallyinsuperable.
But, as usual, Craig was not without some resource, though it lookedimpossible to me to do anything but make a hit or miss arrest at theboat. It was late in the evening when he returned from a conferencewith an officer of the Telegraph and Telephone Company to whom Williamshad given him a card of introduction. The upshot had been that he hadcalled up Chicago and talked for a long time with Professor Clark, aformer classmate of ours who was now in the technology school of theuniversity out there. Kennedy and Clark had been in correspondence forsome time, I knew, about some technical matters, though I had no ideawhat it was they concerned.
"There's one thing we can always do," I remarked as we walked slowlyover to the laboratory from our apartment.
"What's that?" he asked absent-mindedly, more from politeness thananything else.
"Arrest every one with a Van Dyke beard who goes on the boatto-morrow," I replied.
Kennedy smiled. "I don't feel prepared to stand a suit for falsearrest," he said simply, "especially as the victim would feel prettyhot if we caused him to miss his boat. Men with beards are not souncommon, after all."
We had reached the laboratory. Linemen were stringing wires under theelectric lights of the campus from the street to the Chemistry Buildingand into Kennedy's sanctum.
That night and far into the morning Kennedy was working in thelaboratory on a peculiarly complicated piece of mechanism consisting ofelectromagnets, rolls, and a stylus and numerous other contrivanceswhich did not suggest to my mind anything he had ever used before inour adventures. I killed time as best I could watching him adjust thething with the most minute care and precision. Finally I came to theconclusion that as I was not likely to be of the least assistance, evenif I had been initiated into what was afoot, I had as well retire.
"There is one thing you can do for me in the morning, Walter," saidKennedy, continuing to work over a delicate piece of clockwork whichformed a part of the apparatus. "In case I do not see you then, get intouch with Williams and Carroll and have them come here about teno'clock with an automobile. If I am not ready for them then I'm afraidI never shall be, and we shall have to finish the job with the lack offinesse you suggested by arresting all the bearded men."
Kennedy could not have slept much during the night, for though his bedhad been slept in he was up and away before I could see him again. Imade a hurried trip downtown to catch Carroll and Williams and thenreturned to the laboratory, where Craig had evidently just finished asatisfactory preliminary test of his machine.
"Still no message," he began in reply to my unspoken question. He wasplainly growing restless with the inaction, though frequent talks overlong-distance with Chicago seemed to reassure him. Thanks to theinfluence of Williams he had at least a direct wire from his laboratoryto the city which was now the scene of action.
As nearly as I could gather from the one-sided conversations I heardand the remarks which Kennedy dropped, the Chicago post-officeinspectors were still searching for a trace of the package fromAtlantic City which was to reveal the identity of the man who hadpassed the bogus checks and sold the forged certificates of stock.Somewhere in that great city was a photograph of the promoter and ofthe woman who was aiding him to escape, taken in Atlantic City and sentby mail to Chicago. Who had received it? Would it be found in time tobe of use? What would it reveal? It was like hunting for a needle in ahaystack, and yet the latest reports seemed to encourage Kennedy withthe hope that the authorities were at last on the trail of the secretoffice from which the stock had been sold. He was fuming and wishingthat he could be at both ends of the line at once.
"Any word from Chicago yet?" appealed an anxious voice from the doorway.
We turned. There were Carroll and Williams who had come for us with anautomobile to go over to watch at the wharf in Brooklyn for our man. Itwas Carroll who spoke. The strain of the suspense was tell
ing on himand I could readily imagine that he, like so many others who had neverseen Kennedy in action, had not the faith in Craig's ability which Ihad seen tested so many times.
"Not yet," replied Kennedy, still busy about his apparatus on thetable. "I suppose you have heard nothing?"
"Nothing since my note of last night," returned Williams impatiently."Our detectives still insist that Bolton Brown is the man to watch, andthe disappearance of Adele DeMott at this time certainly looks bad forhim."
"It does, I admit," said Carroll reluctantly. "What's all this stuff onthe table?" he asked, indicating the magnets, rolls, and clockwork.
Kennedy did not have time to reply, for the telephone bell was tinklinginsistently.
"I've got Chicago on the wire," Craig informed us, placing his handover the transmitter as he waited for long-distance to make the finalconnection. '"I'll try to repeat as much of the conversation as I canso that you can follow it. Hello--yes--this is Kennedy. Is that you,Clark? It's all arranged at this end. How's your end of the line? Haveyou a good connection? Yes? My synchroniser is working fine here, too.All right. Suppose we try it. Go ahead."
As Kennedy gave a few final touches to the peculiar apparatus on thetable, the cylindrical drum before us began slowly to revolve and thestylus or needle pressed down on the sensitised paper with which thedrum was covered, apparently with varying intensity as it turned. Roundand round the cylinder revolved like a graphophone.
"This," exclaimed Kennedy proudly, "is the 'electric eye,' thetelelectrograph invented by Thorne Baker in England. Clark and I havebeen intending to try it out for a long time. It at last makes possiblethe electric transmission of photographs, using the telephone wiresbecause they are much better for such a purpose than the telegraphwires."
Slowly the needle was tracing out a picture on the paper. It was only athin band yet, but gradually it was widening, though we could not guesswhat it was about to reveal as the ceaseless revolutions widened thephotographic print.
"I may say," explained Kennedy as we waited breathlessly, "that anothersystem known as the Korn system of telegraphing pictures has also beenin use in London, Paris, Berlin, and other cities at various times forsome years. Korn's apparatus depends on the ability of the elementselenium to vary the strength of an electric current passing through itin proportion to the brightness with which the selenium is illuminated.A new field has been opened by these inventions which are now becomingmore and more numerous, since the Korn system did the pioneering.
"The various steps in sending a photograph by the Baker telelectrographare not so difficult to understand, after all. First an ordinaryphotograph is taken and a negative made. Then a print is made and a wetplate negative is printed on a sheet of sensitised tinfoil which hasbeen treated with a single-line screen. You know a halftone consists ofa photograph through a screen composed of lines running perpendicularto each other--a coarse screen for newspaper work, and a fine screenfor better work, such as in magazines. Well, in this case the screen iscomposed of lines running parallel in one direction only, not crossingat right angles. A halftone is composed of minute points, some light,some dark. This print is composed of long shaded lines, some partslight, others dark, giving the effect of a picture, you understand?"
"Yes, yes," I exclaimed, thoroughly excited. "Go on."
"Well," he resumed as the print widened visibly, "this tinfoil negativeis wrapped around a cylinder at the other end of the line and a styluswith a very delicate, sensitive point begins passing over it, crossingthe parallel lines at right angles, like the other lines of a regularhalftone. Whenever the point of the stylus passes over one of thelighter spots on the photographic print it sends on a longer electricalvibration, over the darker spots a shorter vibration. The ever changingelectrical current passes up through the stylus, vibrates with evervarying degrees of intensity over the thousand miles of telephone wirebetween Chicago and this instrument here at the other end of the line.
"In this receiving apparatus the current causes another stylus to passover a sheet of sensitised chemical paper such as we have here. Thereceiving stylus passes over the paper here synchronously with thetransmitting stylus in Chicago. The impression which each stroke of thereceiving stylus makes on the paper is black or light, according to thelength of the very quickly changing vibrations of the electric current.White spots on the photographic print come out as black spots here onthe sensitised paper over which this stylus is passing, and vice versa.In that way you can see the positive print growing here before yourvery eyes as the picture is transmitted from the negative which Clarkhas prepared and is sending from Chicago."
As we bent over eagerly we could indeed now see what the thing wasdoing. It was reproducing faithfully in New York what could be seen bythe mortal eye only in Chicago.
"What is it?" asked Williams, still half incredulous in spite of thetestimony of his eyes.
"It is a photograph which I think may aid us in deciding whether it isDawson or Brown who is responsible for the forgeries," answeredKennedy, "and it may help us to penetrate the man's disguise yet,before he escapes to South America or wherever he plans to go."
"You'll have to hurry," interposed Carroll, nervously looking at hiswatch. "She sails in an hour and a half and it is a long ride over tothe pier even with a fast car."
"The print is almost ready," repeated Kennedy calmly. "By the way, itis a photograph which was taken at Atlantic City a few days ago for abooklet which the Lorraine was getting out. The By-Products forgerhappened to get in it and he bribed the photographer to give him theplate and take another picture for the booklet which would leave himout. The plate was sent to a little office in Chicago, discovered bythe post-office inspectors, where the forged stock certificates weresold. I understood from what Clark told me over the telephone before hestarted to transmit the picture that the woman in it looked very muchlike Adele DeMott. Let us see."
The machine had ceased to revolve. Craig stripped a still wetphotograph off the telelectrograph instrument and stood regarding itwith intense satisfaction. Outside, the car which had been engaged tohurry us over to Brooklyn waited. "Morphine fiends," said Kennedy as hefanned the print to dry it, "are the most unreliable sort of people.They cover their tracks with almost diabolical cunning. In fact theyseem to enjoy it. For instance, the crimes committed by morphinists areusually against property and character and based upon selfishness, notbrutal crimes such as alcohol and other drugs induce. Kleptomania,forgery, swindling, are among the most common.
"Then, too, one of the most marked phases of morphinism is the pleasureits victims take in concealing their motives and conduct. They have amania for leading a double life, and enjoy the deception and mask whichthey draw about themselves. Persons under the influence of the drughave less power to resist physical and mental impressions and theyeasily succumb to temptations and suggestions from others. Morphinestands unequalled as a perverter of the moral sense. It creates aperson whom the father of lies must recognise as kindred to himself. Iknow of a case where a judge charged a jury that the prisoner, amorphine addict, was mentally irresponsible for that reason. The judgeknew what he was talking about. It subsequently developed that he hadbeen a secret morphine fiend himself for years."
"Come, come," broke in Carroll impatiently, "we're wasting time. Theship sails in an hour and unless you want to go down the bay on a tugyou've got to catch Dawson now or never. The morphine businessexplains, but it does not excuse. Come on, the car is waiting. How longdo you think it will take us to get over to---"
"Police headquarters?" interrupted Craig. "About fifteen minutes. Thisphotograph shows, as I had hoped, the real forger. John Carroll, thisis a peculiar case. You have forged the name of the president of yourcompany, but you have also traced your own name very cleverly to looklike a forgery. It is what is technically known as auto-forgery,forging one's own handwriting. At your convenience we'll ride down toCentre Street directly."
Carroll was sputtering and almost frothing at the mouth with rage wh
ichhe made no effort to suppress. Williams was hesitating, nonplussed,until Kennedy reached over unexpectedly and grasped Carroll by the arm.As he shoved up Carroll's sleeve he disclosed the forearm literallycovered with little punctures made by the hypodermic needle.
"It may interest you," remarked Kennedy, still holding Carroll in hisvise-like grip, while the drug fiend's shattered nerves caused him tocower and tremble, "to know that a special detective working for me haslocated Mr. and Mrs. Dawson at Bar Harbor, where they are enjoying aquiet honeymoon. Brown is safely in the custody of his counsel, readyto appear and clear himself as soon as the public opinion which hasbeen falsely inflamed against him subsides. Your plan to give us theslip at the last moment at the wharf and board the steamer for SouthAmerica has miscarried. It is now too late to catch it, but I shallsend a wireless that will cause the arrest of Miss DeMott the momentthe ship touches an American port at Colon, even if she succeeds ineluding the British authorities at Kingston. The fact is, I don't muchcare about her, anyway. Thanks to the telelectrograph here we have thereal criminal."
Kennedy slapped down the now dry print that had come in over his"seeing over a wire" machine. Barring the false Van Dyke beard, it wasthe face of John Carroll, forger and morphine fiend. Next him in thepicture in the brilliant and fashionable dining-room of the Lorrainewas sitting Adele DeMott who had used her victim, Bolton Brown, toshield her employer, Carroll.
The Poisoned Pen Page 8
