RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONDON DETECTIVE.-(Continued.)

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 7 March 1891, Page 4

RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONDON DE-TECTIVE.-(Continued.)

It mignt not De a crime at all, ana, even il it were, it might be quite outside of my provir. :e. I think I should have let him alone h:ul I not been strongly suspicious that he h.'.u shuffled a little about the £50 note. That annoyed me, and I thought I would turn on him a little just to soothe my feelings. I made some inquiries, and learned that Morrice was a generous fellow and a gr^at iavourite with all his acquaintances. He was inclined to be fast, but not dissipated, and was a great flirt with the fair sex, whom he was never tired of treating to trips, balls, and races. He thus spent a deal of money, and sometimes was victimised shamefully, but, as his family were in comfortable circumstances, he was known not to depend upon his salary alone for his costly pleasures. Besides, though he gambled and betted a little, he was known to be very lucky with all his ventures ; so that, search yias I liked, I could find nothing to connect with the stopped notes except the suspicion ot having paid one of them away* It was absurd to suppose that. he was the thief of those notes, and yet it was possible that he knew something of the criminal. These fast youths, knowingly or in innocence, touch palms with the greatest scoundrels unhung. Oae curious question he had put to me when probing me as to my business, " Was the note net a good one?" he had asked \vith some concern, and when I replied, " Oh, yes, as good a note as any ever issued," his concern vanished. Could he know anything <>{ the slipping of the forged notes into circulation, or was his question only prompted by the fear of losing /50 out of his salary ? I have found, not among clerks % and cashiers only, but among men of wealth, ; a general reluctance to recall definitely what I money they have paid away. They always I take refuge in haziness and bad memory W where their pockets are likely to suffer, and Morrice's caution might be that and nothing more. Two other of the stopped notes were ' fonr.d in circulation while I was making I'lese inquiries, and again one of the firms had the idea that one of the notes had been paid to them by Powder & Co.'s cashier. I noticed that every evening, and sometimes in the morning, when he came into the city, Morrice stopped for a good while at a cigar shop near Liverpool Street, which was kept by a pretty girl for a man who had a branch in the city. She was young and sngaging, and, above all, a good girl, and I had ndt watched long before I knew that ' Morrice was desperately in love with her. I dropped into the place from time to lime, and smoked and chatted with her till we got quite friendly, for I always had the knack of getting on nicely with girls. One day I pretended to notice for the first time that she wore an engagement ring, and said to her bluntly — " I shouldn't wonder but Charlie Morrice put that there now ?" She blushed crimson and laughed, very much pleased, and yet taken aback by the - re .nark. Being a married man, with girls of my I :; I often take upon me to advise young • ' and I had got to have a kind of L st in this one, so I said — • >o you think Charlie will make a good It- ' nd?. Ain't he a little fast, and fond 0, '■.. ting and billiards ?" "ile gave up billiards long ago," she saiil, in a woman's proud way, as if the giving up had been through her, " and he will never bet any more ; he's got a good fright, and sworn never to bet or go to a race meeting again." "A fright? how? Lost some money, Ieh?" 11 Yes, a great deal— a good bit more than he could — but I shouldn't speak of that. It was all made right through the kindness of a friend; but it will keep him back for a long time and put oft' our marriage two years. I don't mind that if it does him good. He's a good lad, and so kind and loving, but he has been foolish, that's all." " He looks a good lad, and simple enough to be led away," I said, which was quite true, " but I don't think he'd do anything wrong ?" " No— no," she answered with a little hesitation, and then more decidedly she added, " he never will." I did not draw much more out of her, and I left the place sincerely hoping that if he was involved in the affair of the stopped dotes this girl would be saved from being ■tied to him for life, for it seemed to me that Khe deserved a happy and prosperous union Hvith some honest fellow less easily led by Khe nose than this novice. ■ The question that now arose in my mind Kvas the first that occurs to any one where Hi clerk has got into a difficulty with money ■natters— Was it his own money he lost ? Hflundreds of fools every year put a little of ■heir master's money in the stake along Hvith their own ; sometimes they win, and Hhe borrowing transaction is never disHovered ; but generally they lose, and go Rither into prison as convicts or into the Hiver as suicides. A friend had helped him Hut of the difficulty, but the thing was to Hripple him for years— what could that Hnean but borrowed money, possibly at high ? H The same evening, as I was following Hlorrice from his office towards the cigar Hhop, he crossed Bishopgate Street suddenly Howards the corner of Houndsditch and ■topped a man who was turning smartly Hbwn in that direction. I could not see the Hrhole of the man's face, but the Jewish were plain enough. Morrice had Hnly a word or two with him in passing, and Hien moved on as before. My curiosity roused, and I determined to follow the and see who he was. At the foot of street I got in front of him and recoghim as Joss Murger, a man who had been one of the smartest welchers Testing the racecourses. He had grown though, and somewhat prosperous, so was not so fit for running as when I him first. I never could compare H)ss's running, in his swift days, to anything that of a mouse. When you see a run across a room, the motion of its are so swift, and its body lies so close ;''e floor, that you do not see a limb — the thing seems to dart and disap- -;•"• That was Joss's style, when the race i the wrong way. He used to chuckle --.. over the success of his tricks. " I'm Hri : the fools good," he would say, "for, if didn't lose their money to me, they'd sure to lose it a worse way ; or, if I stayed paid up all square, they get gambling roasters' money, and never stop short the Old Bailey. When I nip them at the it disgusts and cures 'em. I'm than twenty preachers, for nothing a man so powerful as losin' money " not for a moment imagine that Joss His the thief of the stopped notes. A Jew make a good thief, and seldom tries he is so unfitted for by nature. Any of quiet crime, where there are many of escape, he will try and execute the most elaborate cunning, though the should be absolutely contemptible in to the labour involved, but bold is queit out of their line. stopped Joss and chaffed him a bit. He > anxious to know what I was about at I particular moment, and of course I told j Walker ! He pretended to accept my in good faith, and I knew he was pre- j and he knew I was romancing, and • Hp nothing but a pretty farce altogether, j : Morrke had stopped him at thehaad 1