The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-09-29
THE DEcoY LETTER.
Philadelphia News.

inspector oI tno Cnlteu HtAtes aocfot service, had a queer experience some time ago in a beautiful little town way down in Maryland. MT. Bar rett's long experience with this sort of work has taught him just how to dig a pit for his game, and as the train neared the village he walked through the smoker into the mail car, asked for the mail clerk, showed his commission and said he had something which he wanted done.
 "What is it?' asked the clerk, ner- vously, eyeing the chief inspector.
 Where is the mail pouch you throw of at the next stopi"
 It was produced.
 "Open It."
 It was opened, for an inspector has absolute authority, not only over mail clerks, but over the postmasters of the larger cities"
 "Here is 6 letter." said Mir. Bar rett, addressed to James Lancaster, a fictitious name. The letter contains a ten-dollar bill. l want you to ex- anime it, take the address, put 1t in that pouch and lock it with your own hands"
 All this was done, and Mir. Barrett went back to his seat in one of the day coaches, confident that the next move in the game would answer his expectations.
 The secret service agent stood upon the platform of the mail car when the train stopped and the pouch was thrown of, when he at once stepped to the platform. A boy, whose busi- ness it was to carry the mail, took the pouch ovcr his shoulder and started up the village street, never dreaming that chief inspector of the postal service Was following him on the other side of the street and was watching him like hawk, while seeming to watch nothing. It was a beautiful Junei day, the birds were singing, and although it was high noon, the leafy, lofty trees lining the quiet street cast such deep, cool shadows that MT. Barrett did not find walking unpleasant. For about & quarter of mile the boy kept on. fol- lowed by the inspector, and then turned into a frame building, with a white and black sign over the door la beled, "Post- ofiice."
 "Now," said Mir. Barrett, inwardly, "My letter has reached Its destina. tion."
 There was a crowd of visitors inside of the little post-office and outside, who swarmed toward the desk "to get their mail," and Mir. Barrett waited some fifteen minutes, until they had all gone, before he entered the place, and saw handsome girl, about seven- teen years old, dressed in an old fash toned bodice and light-colored skirt, sitting behind the wire grating in a rocking -chair, sewing.
 "Is there a letter here for James Lancaster2" said the inspector, and every one who knows his face and figure will not wonder that the girl took him for well-to-do country man.
 "No," she said, after sorting some letters in case marked "L."
 "Won't you look again?" and she did look, but with no better result.
 T am sure the letter must have come," said Mir. Barrett. and l, who know him well, can imagine how gently he said it.
 "It's not here."
 "Are you the postmaster"
 "No. am the assistant. My father is the postmaster"
 "Who opened the pouch that came by the last train?"
 q did"
 "No one to help you?"
 "No, sir"
 The girls bright eyes looked as in- nocently at Mir. Barrett as any girls bright eyes ever looked at any man.
 "Maybe 1t stuck in theApouch? Pve heard of such things" he said. "Won't you look?"
 She took the pouch, turned it up- side down, shook it and looked inside No letter.
 "Won't you let me come in and help you look for it?" said Mr. Barrett. "No. No one is allowed in here."
 The chief inspector drew from hii pocket his commission from the United States government, with its official signatures and seals, and showed 1t to the girl, asking as she read it, "Can come in now2"
 "Yes," blushiDg; "I beg your par don."
 "You did perfectly right, my child, 7 said the venerable agent of the secret service.
 There was board partition six feet high beyond the wired window, and a gate in the end of this partition towards which the postmaster's daugh- ter went, but Mir. Barrett thought she moved very slowly. At last she turned the key in the lock, opened the solid gate and admitted the in-