ON BANK-SERVICE IN CANADA.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 170, 5 November 1880, Page 2 (Supplement)

ON BANK-SERVICE IN CANADA.

Political and social life in America have been often described. The idiosyncrasies of the people—their hurry, impulsiveness, and extravagence—form the staples of our tourists’ books. All travellers look through the same telescope, but through alternate ends. Mr. Puli', resolving to write 4 a work’ upon the ‘ great republic,’ obtains a huge magnifying-glass, and landing upon the pier at New York, mounts the lirst wood-pile to take an observation. He is of course lost in wonder and delight, for he has resolved to make a great deal of his theme. Not so with the astute Doctor Derogate, who sets his eye to the big end of the glass, and reconnoitres the most insignificant country in the world. He is satisfied of this when he walks around his tripod, and looks back, through the other end, upon the land of his nativity. But there are many things in America which neither Messrs Puff nor Derogate can see. The little phenomena which furnish the best clues require microscopic investigation. They must be observed closely, carefully, continuously, and by those who ihrcll —not those who run. What, for example, can a flighty tourist know of homes in the far west V He sees the forests and the prairies, but there are huts amid them where men and children live. He looks down upon vast cities, which have sprung up in a night; the smoke of their thousand hearths curls towrrds him, the church spires glitter beneath, the river and the shipping cluster around; but deep in their intricacies abide strange beings —the base, the wanton, the wretched. These have not entered into our sage reports, though criminal life across the Atlantic is one of the most unique and individual manifestations of that anomalous society. Crime is universal. It is the great pioneer and colonist. Cramped in old and dense populations, its restless instincts impel it to wild and far-off adventure. Prom the flight of Cain to the exodus of British convicts, the men of siu have been the founders of nations. They hew down the wilderness, throttle the vipers, and slay the savages. Then come better and more timid folk, to establish order and religion ; and in course of time, the original knaves are canonised, and sounding pedigrees are traced to them. Just such a transition is taking place now in America. The young republic is still the great Alsatia for the Old World’s unworthy and disaffected subjects. The enterprise of the country is a legitimate development of these classes ; so likewise is its aggressiveness, itsperculation, its recklessness. The new element is gaining the ascendency, as least in the older settlements, but a great deal of crime exists, though it is exercised in now and curious modes. Prior to the present civil war, there existed no natioual papercurrency in the United States. Thousands of corporations, more or less irresponsible, issued promises to pay, and the monetary insecurity thus engendered, gave licence to all descriptions of forging and counterfeiting. I was sitting at the office of my journal one evening, when Detective Ballagan came in. Ho had promised to notify me of the first good ‘case’ of which he might have charge, and at present he was on the track of a notorious offender, by name Jules Ingram, a native of Martinique. 'Phis man had been chief clerk in the largest produce-house of the West India Islands, where he had swindled to the amount of fifty thousand dollars, and had escaped to New York. He brought with him blank bill-heads and drafts of every business firm in the tropics, and had deposited these at a hotel on the quay. After a year of prodigious success, he was caught in Missouri, and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. His discharge marks a singular adjustment of time to crime. Within twelve hours after the forger recovered his documents, the place of deposit was in ashes. 110 renewed his guilty career immediately, obtained five thousand dollars within a week, and escaping to Canada, threatened to plunder every American banker from Portland to Galveston. He was an accomplished penman, scholar, and bookkeeper, thoroughly conversant with business details, and had so mastered the secrets of the postal system, that he could operate by proxy, and übiquitously. Ho was believed now to be dwelling on the frontier ; and the bankers of all the Atlantic cities had subscribed funds for his apprehension and conviction at whatever cost. A woman to whom Ingram was attached had been seen at Albany, going westward. It was probable that she and the forger were not far apart, and Ballagan wished me to proceed northward with him the same afternoon, that he might keep closely upon their trail. We followed by rail the windings of the palisaded Hudson, threaded the rich valley of the Mohawk, and at Rome, an ambitious settlement of North-western New York, heard by telegraph of a new feat of Ingram at Watertown, on the falls of Black River, near the head (>f laike Ontario, lie undoubtedly meant to dwell without Federal jurisdiction, appear periodically in the States, and after each olt'cnce, escape across the St. Lawrence. There was, I believe an extradition to a y, e r.braciug the crime of forgery ; but the formalities of law, and the jealousies of Canadian and State officials, practically annulled it. Ballagan was shrewd and bold ; ho determined to entrap Ingram, if possible ; but in the failure of intrigue, to seme and kidnap him anyu here upon foreign soil. The reward would be large; and the detective had taken me with him that I might give the capture a newspaper notoriety, and so challenge the generosity of the bankers. We were armed with fowling-pieces, and meant to hunt and dish along the lake-border, Ballagan to watch the telegraph stations, and 1 to play the guileless young sportsman among frontier girls and gossips. N< idler of us had seen Ingram, but we cairied his photograph. It represented a small, thoughtful, grizzle-haired man addicted t > cigars and an eye-glass. I thought I could recognise the original if I saw him, but had qualms ns to the repute to be derived from thief-catching. The detective’s first precaution was to forward a description of the felon to every revenue-officer upon the American bank of the St. Lawrence. The functions of these did not embrace state crimes, of which forgery was one, and they were

therefore charged to detain Ingram for debasing the currency—a national offence.

After three days of provoking ill-suc-cess, we traced the forger’s female accomplice to Cape Vincent, a paltry American village at the junction of the lake and the river. Here she had mysteriously disappeared; neither the return rail nor the Canada ferry, nor any of the border steamers, had taken her aboard; the conclusion of Ballagan was prompt and sagacious—she had met the forger himself, and he had spirited her away. The river was here seven or ten miles broad, and divided by many Islands. Ingram may have located himself upon one of these, and by means of a row-boat, made his passage to either mainland. We acted upon the surmise at once, hired oarsmen and a bateau, and beat up and down the channel for many leagues. It was rare sport to take the silvery pickerel and inuscolung, and I would gladly have relinguishod the human prey for these inoffensive creatures. The skies were cool and clear ; the river ran steadily seaward without a tide, laving fantastic bluffs, fringed with a strip of beach, and plumed with black-boughed cedars, 'fhepanther and the Indian weie around us, as in colonial days ; now and then, the red fisherman and his squaw drank from our canteens stolidly; and we brought down many a wild goose from his dream in the clouds. This was America as we know it in the ideal—wild, solitary,.boundless—yet here were we on the proud St. Lawrence, with the prosaic purpose of capturing a jail-bird. For a week, our efforts were futile ; there were a few * farmhouses upon the frontier islands, but we were satisfied that Ingram harboured in none of them, and the configuration of the coast was such that the exploration promised to be interminable. In the meantime, the rogue attempted a a third forgery at Ogdensburg, fifty miles distant, and the press teemed with complaints of the police system and of Ballagan. It was on the twelfth day of our adventure, that the detective, sick of care and exposure, made over to me the boat and outfit. The waterman rowed me at dawn to a cove within Wolf Island, the largest of the group ; it was a lonely place, removed from either channel of the river, visible from neither mainland, and out of sight of every sail and habitation. I made fast my line at three hundred yards; the burnished bait skimmed the' surface like a star ; the rower never tired nor slackened,' and before nine o’clock, I ’ had taken a score of pickerel, not one of which weighed less than six pounds. I was now reminded of breakfast; the island was near at hand ; and as we pulled along the border to tied a landing, a turn in the coast revealed a comfortable frame dwelling, set against a ridge of thick timber, and Hanked by a smooth beach. Smoke curled from its chimney, a boat bordered the strand, and a dog rose up and howled as our oars awakened him. Directly, a man and a woman appeared at the door ; the former walked down to the skill', and leaping into it, sculled rapidly away, without saying a word. The woman received us shyly, but hospitably. >She gave my man the use of lire and kettle; and while be cleaned and prepared the fish, I strolled into the yard to regard the establishment. Tlie wood grew tall and tangled close to tiic promises ; there seemed no approach but by the cove ; the dwelling was almost without furniture : neither cattle, nor sheep, nor poultry inhabited the barn ; and the only sounds to break the general hush were those of wild birds careening overhead, or the waters splashing upon the sands. A turn in the edge of the cedars brought me to a path, which I pursued curiously till it stopped at the brink of a pool or inlet, were a raft lay moored to] the shore. As similar channels environed the dwelling, 1 concluded that it stood upon a small, separate island, and had for this reason escaped our previous notice. The woman was watching me from a window as I returned. She was handsome but not pre-possessing-—a lino animal face, a little dissolute perhaps, and strangely out of place in this bleak, secluded country. She was indisposed to converse, admitted that she had lived here but a little while, and at length, weary with annul, took a yellow-coloured novel from a shelf, and and read in uneasy silence, eyeing me at intervals. The scone was oddly composed ; a painting of it would have been unpardonable —the bare floors and walls, the wild pines and cedars, the desolate lawn and water, and this lino, fashionable, sensual woman, reading a loose novel amid the ruin. I took down the few books from tiie shelf ; Hunt’s 4 Merchants’ Magazine,’ a pile of shipping lists, a manual of book-keeping, a lot of business directories, a treatise on commercial law— an odd library, surely, for the wilderness. Revolving these things in my mind as I ate, l made a second abortive attempt to engage madame’s attention, and at last bade her good-bye. f Row mo to the Canada shore,’ l said to the waterman ; we will spend a night with the British Lion.’

I landed at a hamlet near trie city of Kingston, and proceeding to a tidy tavern, stretched myself beneath a window, and essayed to read a newspaper. Dulness arid fatigue induced drowsiness. I was half-way ii:to a dream, when the entrance of somebody disturbed me. A person in a gray coat had taken up the journal, and was perusing it by aid of an eye-glass. His side and back were turned towards, me, but I thought I recognised him as the surly occupant of the dwelling upon the cove. He was small, lithe, and gentlemanly ; and after after awhile he took a billet from his pocket, folded it, and lighting a cigar, threw away the remnant of the paper. A commotion of some description now attracted him to the exterior, and before I could compose myself to sleep again, the noise in front grew liorco and boisterous. I found the stranger wrangling with a knot of boors who had lately lost some horses, and were disposed to regard all unknown folk as thieves. He was calm and polite, kind having abashed them somewhat, withdrew to his vessel, and pushed into the stream. As he stood up in tlie bateau, and faced mo for the first time, the conviction rushed upon me that tliis man and Jules Ingram were one ! The photograph in the possession of Ballagan could have been taken from no

other face. The same small, thoughtful, grizzle-haired man regarded me ; there were the eye-glass and the cigar ; and as, with a quick heart, I recalled each shade and feature, the fine lady on the lonely island came to memory; she was the creature of Jules ingrain ; the bare dwelling was his retreat ; the mercantile books were his aids to felony ; the man before me was the forger ! Another clue at once suggested itself—the billet with which he had lighted his cigar. I entered the bar-room tremuously, and took the remnant from the lloor ; the blood gushed to my face at the lirst word : the sum of Ind sons Unique Island est Indies The paper was a blank bill of exchange, one of many with which the culprit had operated ! I waited no longer, but summoned iny waterman, and relieving each other at the oars, we reached Cape Vincent at dusk. It was not without remorse that I confided my discoveries to Ballagan. 1 regretted that it had been my destiny to make them. The law had its paid agents, of whom l was not one. My meditations might not be soothed on bleak nights to come by the thought of a miserable man whom my officiousness had consigned to a cold prison cell. But now that the facts were in my possession, it was criminal to withhold them. I laid them before the detective as he lay in bed, leaning his powerful head and neck upon a muscular arm, and his small secretive eyes grew blank and expressionless, and lie listened like one deaf, It was his professional way of denoting satisfaction. 4 You must take the ferry to Kingston immediately,’ he said ; 4 I will dictate a telegram and a placard ; the one must be despatched, and the other printed at once upon your arrival. Write !' 1 took up pen and paper, and he outlined as follows : 4 To all British officials and residents on the St. Lawrence : I, Repin Retit, of Fort Erie, Canada West, have lost, eight prime horses. The thief is known to be a small, grizzle-haired, intelligent person, near-sighted, and wearing a gray coat ; was last seen near Kingston, and is believed to dwell on or near Wolf Island. 1 will pay a thousand dollars for his detention ; he will doubtless attempt to land between Kingston and Montreal.’ t I dropped the pen indignantly. ‘ This is a lie, Ballagan !’ I said ; 4 a trick of your craft ; I will have nothing Lo do with it.’ ■' I place you under arrest !’ thundered the giant, dashing away his coverlets. 4 1 have noticed your sqiicamislmess ; the law will hold yon as an accomplice of the forger ; it is in your power to serve justice ; you refuse ! how will public opinion brand you !’ I saw my mistake, and confessed it. My companion was remorseless as a tiger. They paint Justice blind ; her ministers are alt too keen ; but -this man had no heart- ; he could not comprehend a scruple ; be despised a Sentiment or a fear ; if his new-born babe bad stood between himself and Jules Ingram, lie would have trampled it down. I compared him only to a blood-hound at the one! of the scent ; half-dead with fatigue as ho was, his jaws were quivering now; the tracks of the game wore fresh ; the smell of blood was in his nostrils, lie was up and alert ! That night the trains on the Grand Trunk Railway carried handbills to every river-side village ; the Canada shore was closed against the forger as securely as the American shore had already been. Horse-thieving was not less heinous than murder, whore livestock constituted the sole-riches of a people; they would watch for Jules Ingram like savages nourishing a wmlctta. lie would have but three alternatives : to take to the forests, at the peril of being devoured by panthers ; to drift upon the broad Ontario, and perish by storm or hunger ; or to follow the current of the river among the Thousand renowned isles, daring the passage of the rapids, until overtaking some European-bound vessel in the gulf, ho might bid farewell to the Now World. T slept little during the night, and sought the quay one hour before daybreak, that I might take the lirst ferry for Cape \ incont. The steamer had not come in ; and as the air was very cool, I resorted to the furnace of a towboat just firing up alongside the wharf ; the deck-hands were all gathered at the windows, peering in the darkness towards the American shore. 4 What are you expecting, boys V I asked. 4 The ashoshiaslnm for the portektion of property in bosses, said a grimy engineer, 4 has gone oil" to the island to burn out a ho?s-thief. They been a snap ctin’ him for a week ; to-night, a feller from Fort Erie brought positive proof. Wo are a- lookin’ out for the blaze.’ In a few moments, the sky in midhorizon lighted up ; the woody outlines of the island were revealed llickeringly ; shadows of flame were reflected across the broad, dark current, and soon wo made out a black object advancing in the glare ; it was the ferry-boat, and the first man to step ashore was Ballagan.

-4 Our friend has escaped,’he said ; 4 lie loft me a curious paper by his lady, who, unfortunately, has no dwelling at present, and I have given her shelter in the jail.’ I took the note in my hands ; the writing was clear and beautiful, as if engraved— 4 To the Detective stopping at Cape Vincent. I would respectfully suggest that you are doing yourself and me wrong, not to say injustice. If you capture me, you make, say, three thousand dollars ;* give me fair-play one week, and I will give myself a hundred thousand dollars, and you twenty thousand. This is an honest proposition ; consider it ! 1 know that Canada and the States are alike shut to me, but I still live, and I will never be taken alive. — Iniuia.m. 3lv first contributions to the Canadian journals were suggested by Ballagan, and appeared next morning. They were intended to inflame public sentiment, and related certain fables of Ingram’s feats at running stock out of the colony. On the same night, every fireside fr*m Toronto to Quebec was made acquainted with the fugitive’s pcrtoHnc!. Vengeance was sworn against him wherever t;vo boors met together. The farmer in the Held kept one eye ever upon the river; each canoe, barge, smack, and steamer was subjected to espionage; the whole

frontier was hunting down one man. We knew that he was adrift in his bateau, for now and then somebody would espy him for an instant gliding along the edges of bluffs, or sculling through fields of marine grass, or vanishing behind a woody cape or island. Thrice he attempted to land, but the country-folk drove him back with execrations. The dairy-maid would not even give him a cup of milk ; the Indian refused him bread and fire ; once some iittle children turned his boat adrift, but he swam astream, and recovered it. Thus, friendless, hungry, and at bay, he moved for ever northward toward the cold gulf, till, having entered the romantic territory of the 4 Thousand Isles,’ wo lost all traces of him. Our voyage through the most picturesque of archipelagoes was rendered thrice entrancing by the adventure which had developed it. There are said to be literally a thousand islands clustering in the broad neck or estuary of the St. Lawrence. Many of them can scarcely afford foothold to a bird ; others support a single miniature tree ; some sustain huge masses of rock, piled in eccentric forms, and holding in their crevices the palms of climbing vines ; a few are large and heavy with turf and woodland, and all are verdant as spring. A. voyage among them is like the reading of a poem or the passing of a dream ; one seems to be far aloft in a balloon, gazing tit the diminished land and sea ; for were there but little folk to inhabit these pigmy continents, we should have Liliputia indeed. Here, in winter, the drift-ice heaps up crags and monuments, and the Hoes and fields crush up in summer, as if they would bear the Thousand Isles away to their Arctic home the wild birds bring forth their j'oung upon the surface ; the cold spawn of the tishes grows warm and vital beneath ; the striped and spotted snake lies among their debris, charming the sparrow and the blue-jay ; and the wolf' passing from land to laud, halts here in dead midnight to howl. Not a human being tenants the Thousand Isles ; they are sprinkled here and there in wondrous irregularity ; the deep river winds in and out among them as if lost or tarrying; and the tourist passing by is reminded of some tableau in the melodrama, too beautiful and unexpected to be real. In pursuit of Ingram, we explored every islet of this region. Wo found a hundred traces of him for he was for ever flitting to and fro—now the embers of his fire, now the echo of his rille, now the report of some alarmed fisherman, whom the fugitive had passed like an apparition. One day at sunset we saw him—a ragged, haggard, hatless being, standing upon a rock scarcely larger than a man’s hand, with the waters churning around him, and his bateau at his feet. He was sharply outlined against the rod sky, and lie stood in an attitude of despair, leaning wearily upon his rille. I. thought of the wandering Jew, or the last Indian of his race, halting oil the brink of the Racilie. Sud.'ienly lie beheld us ; gnashing his teeth, and lifting his clenched hand, he leaped into his vessel, and sculled away like the wind , wo lost him in the darkuus, and saw him no more for many days. Two weeks had now been consumed in this singular pursuit At last, Ballagan became troubled and doubtful. It was possible for Ingram changing Lis position every night, to lead us upon a wild chase for a year. He could plunder barns and river craft for nourishment, and iisli and game were plentiful. Desperate, m view of the penalty of his offence, wo know that roving among these green islands was consonant with his adventurous nature. Fresh from Jive .years entombment in the jail, and hopeful of guilty gain, lie would leave no artilico untried to retain his liberty: and Ballagan feared that he would surrender himself to the Canadian authorities, when the device of Mr. Repin I’etit might be manifest. One day, at Alexandria Bay, we received u dispatch from a station far down the river; Jules Ingram had been seen near the head of the First Rapid ; ho had foiled us, and with a long start, was making his way vigorously towards the Gulf of - St. Lawrence. Every stroke of the oars was a new hope to him ; in ten hours he would pass the American boundary-line, and then our difficulties would be multiplied tenfold. Ballagan acted with his usual decision ; we took the lirst express steamer, and pushed on with all the energy of current and steam. It was midnight when we reached the head of the rapids, and as it was forbidden to descend them in the darkness, the vessel halted at a quay, and waited for the morning. It was a grand steamer — 4 a floating palace’—and having walked with Ballagan up and down tlie cold promenade-deck, listening to the roar of the waters, 1 wearied of his impatience, and retired to mj'- sumptuous state-room. I was soundly dreaming ; my heart was back among the Thousand Isles, and our wild search was all forgotten, when raps upon my chamber-door brought me to my feet. It was Ballagan, and I knew by his blank, sphinx-like countenance that something was to ensue. 4 Ooino out at once,’ lie said, in deep, unimpassioned monotone. 4 Help me to launch the boat : yon are to go on the water with me. No flinching ! or, by the Great American Eagle, your life isn’t worth a rushlight.’ A premonition of danger crept coldly upon me ; I knew that he saw me falter, but I did not speak. I marked in the gray dawn from the windy deck the awful surging of the rapids, tossing their foamy hairs into the sky, blending their sprays in white cataracts of mist, and dashing upon black rocks, imperfectly revealed, as if meaning to wrest them from their everlasting bases. The whole wide St. Lawrence was a fierce, tumultuous torrent, boiling, and churning, and clamouring. The boles of some huge trees wore passing down the current, and I marvelled to mark them tossed aloft like reeds, the waters catching them as they fell again, and hurling them high into the air, till, passing from cascade to cascade, they emerged at last a mile below, bruised, and scarred, and broken. Of what advantage would be a man’s strength struggling with such an element l Pharaoh and his host, with all Egypt at their back, might have gone down in a twinkling there. Traditions existed of Indian hunters whose skilled hands had guided the canoe through this same flood, but no living man had dared the experiment. Huge steamers went down shivering, and some had been tom into splinters, while sailing-

craft of all descriptions made the detour by canal. •' Do you see something stealing along by the margin yonder !’ said Ballagan to me. ‘I have remarked it for an hour.’ I took his proffered glass, and recognised distinctly an approaching bateau, and a wild figure in a gay coat sculling in the stern. It was .Jules Ingram. He was making energetically for the Canada shore, for he seemed to have an intuition of his proximity to the rapids ; and ever and anon, as he advanced, his face was turned to regard the steamer distrustfully. ‘ Crouch here by the gunwale,’ said Ballagan ; ‘ when I give the word, run out the lines of the bateau. I shall have the oars ; take you my rifle in the bow. Be cool and steady, and obey my orders.’ No soul was astir upon the vessel ; we watched the guilty man with our hearts in our eyes. It required no effort of his to drive the bateau towards us, for the velocity of the current impelled it at racing-pace. At each instant, the dawn grew brighter ; at each instant, the victim grew nearer. We marked him with the naked eye at length—a face like that of a wild beast, half furtive, half ferocious, and gaunt with hunger and anxiety ; his grizzled hairs, uncovered, shaded his savage beard, and his inflamed eyes glared caverauusly from their deep, dark sockets; his clothes were rent and stained ; his feet were scirred and bare; yet with all this wretchedness, the attitude of the man was that of pride and defiance ; it was the consciousness of deserved misery, for which he could not apologise, and which ho had determined to endure. The wharf to which we were moored kept him out of view of the rapids till he had drifted directly beneath us, and then the danger broke suddenly upon him. fie seemed stricken dumb, and the oar quivered in his lingers. At the same moment, Ballagan called out to me to loosen my line. The boat dropped like a bolt ; we clambered down as hastily. The detective seized the scull, while I crouched with the rifle at the bow, and pushing away in a trice, we had almost collided with Ingram’s vessel, betoro he was well aware of our presence. Ic was a pause of a second. The wretch gave one iierce glance at the shore, the steamer, and the cataract, and then, witii the impulse of despair, struck out boldly for the rapids. lie had not the strength of Ballagan, but lie was a better hand with the oar. His hairs blazed in the wind ; his rags fluttered, and his eyes distended till their pupils grew small and glittering. Both men worked with the energy of death ; the one to overtake and capture before the sluice had pulled them in ; tire other to intimidate, perhaps, by a semblance of engulfing both, or failing, to make that semblance .a terrible reality. My senses were marvellously acute : there was no tiny moving thing in nature which f did not observe ; the twitter of a passing swallow ; a chip moving on the waves ; a little iish fluttering at the surface ; a distant hawk, swooping like a speck in the sky ; the rocking of the boat, and the crack of a splay in the oar, each carved device upon the stock of the rifle ; the first sunbeam ; the cry of an alarmed man upon the steamer, and the passengers hurrying upon deck. It was the awakening of every energy —prelude tu a violent death —admonishing man of the glory of that organism which a moment is to shatter for ever. I had still hope, for we glided yet smoothly upon the current. it must be that we were gaining upon Ingram ; he dared not perish with his crimes upon his head ; he meant to turn and submit; there was still time to escape the cataract. Should I stop his career with the rifle ! 1 lifted the bright barrel, with murder half-way in my heart ; my nerves were taunt as wires ; I could have dropped him dead at his helm as readily as one wings a crow. lie saw me glance down the groove, and his face, froze my blood ; it was mine redacted—all the agonies o; man’s nature pleading for life, life, life ! •'Do not fire, boy!’ cried Ballagan between his teeth ; ‘ I will take him alive, or die with him !’

On, and on, and on we galloped —the two oarsmen with black faces wrenching tlie waters apart, and I coaid hear the hard breathing of both till the roar of the river absorbed all sound. So quickly ran my thought, that I iikenod the noise of the waters to human speech : they seemed to be shrieking : Drowned, drowned, drowned !’ and the cry rung out so sonorously thrilling that I caught myself repeating it. I wondered if each drop of water had not identity, and the waves a community of intelligence, and every cataract a like ambition, and that ambition now- -my death 1 Still 1 saw everythine. There was a rocky island covered with trees, just in the edge of the rapids ; tli-.it was our last salvation ; if the boat passed it by, there was nothing left for hope. Already the spray was lapping us : the waters were hoarse and thirsty ; 1 looked at Ballagan with dry, mute eyes, but saw no mercy there. ‘ Pray, boy,’ he said— ‘ pray for us both, and hold fast ! J. am going down the flood.’

The island passed ns at a wink. I felt the boat lifted bodily, and the earth seemed to leap up and crush it as we fell. Again we vaulted aloft, so far that in the terror of the end 1. had time to iv to on the crowded decks of the steamer one woman praying with clasped hands, amt another who had swooned ; the planks of the bateau were bent like withes of straw, the waves gushed from stem to rt un ; I was lifted from my feet, and hurlel against Ballagati, but he stood at the oar like a rock ; I saw through my (benched eyes the forger as rigidly fixed ; liis vessel moved like a winged thing, rather of the air than of the element : and even in this time of despair, his face was dark and haughty. Something stood am id-stream as I gazed—black, jagged rocks, and we were hurled upon them. The craft seemed crunching to atoms as wo struck ; it rose vertically, and the foam gussied in at the bow. I knew that this was all. Once more L marked the white waste or waves, the vanishing islands, the Hitting banks and trees and dwellings ; and as a soft vision of home blinded my wet eyes, I called upon the name of One mighty to save, and clutched the cold planks, and knew no more.

Ajthunderbolt apparently awakened me, and a terrible weight was p>res3ing upon

my chest. I was lying in the bottom of the boat, now half-full of water, and Ballagan was holding me fast with his foot. I could scarcely see his face for smoke, but a moment revealed him, standing grimly erect with the rifle at his shoulder. ‘ Rise !’ he said, releasing me ; 1 we are fast sinking. Bear a hand with the oar, and give me place in the bow. . I staggered up tremblingly ; we had passed the rapids ; they were churning behind us ; the felon glided on before, but I marked that the scull had splintered in his fingers, and he was wringing his hands in pain ; the bullet of the detective bad broken his oar fairly at the junction of shaft and paddle, and bis arms were palsied by the shock. In a twinkling he leaped for the second oar, but ere he could employ it, the bateau collided, and he met Ballagan at the gunwale, knife in hand. The detective, clubbing the rifle, struck him a powerful blow, which stretched him prostrate like a dead man. The hunt was over ; trie felon was captive at last, and as we* headed his launch for the shore, our own went down in ton-fathom water. \V<» landed upon the southern bank of the St. Lawrence ; and Ballagan. with his usual promptness, decided to undertake the wild passage of the ad jacent fo.est. in preference to returning by steamer, with the prospect of trouble from provincial officials. I ’nave not the space to describe many' exciting incidents of this journey. We kept southwards for three weeks, travelling on foot, and came to habitations at the foot of the Adiroudac Mountains, in the state of New \ork. Jules Ingram was duly indited upon four bills of forgery ; but the hardships of his front cr exile had been too great for his feeble constitution. He died in the dock, cool and self-reliant to the last. Ballagan earned money enough to retire from the police body ; Jte has found his quietus in the present civil war ; but in the interregnum, wo had frequent laughs over the fate of Pepin I’etit, Esq., the eminent stock-dealer, who ’ perished in the Cedar Rapids, accompanied by two unknown persons.’