Milford chronicle., 1888-10-26

was to pay for them, took his departure.
He only went, however, far enough to
drop into the Office Of a neighboring firm, |
where his business assumed the form Of
an order to sell ten thousand of the same
st. Anthony bonds.
81 bought them, you know, because !
fancied them as an investment, but l con
ciuded not to keep them. By the way"
re continued, Il want to buy draft with
the money, and l wish you would get me
notes for the amount. III bring the bonds
In tomorrow at noon, and shall be In
hurry"
This order; too, was accepted and exc
cuted without question, and Mr.. West
bury passed In turn to every brokerage
house in the ''street" which had been
honored with his acquaintance, and with
which he had paved way by his desui-
tory speculations. To one set Of brokers
he gave orders 70 buy various amounts OF
a diversity Of bonds or other securities,
and in each case gave orders to another
set for the sale Of the same, supplement-
ing It by a polite request that the pro
ceeds be handed him in cash when he de-
livered the bonds on the ensuing day.
Westbury made his appearance about
noon at the Office Of the first firm on his
carefully prepared list, and took posses
sion of his bonds, rendering in payment
check on his bank with the usual eertih-
cation scrawled on its face. After a little
Of his usual pleasant chat, he left, and
then few like the wind to the offices Of
the brokers who had sold the same bonds
for him.
Having delivered the securities and re-
eeiyed his money, which he carelessly
thrust in his pocketbook, he departed
only to carry out the like programme with
two other houses to which he had In
trusted his precious orders. In short, by
this ingenious plan of obtaining bonds
and securities, paying for them with his
certified checks and Immediately receiy-
ing cash for them from the houses which
] he had directed to sell them, he became
possessed within a couple Of hours OF
something like 100000 in United
| States notes; and although he was tread
/ ing on q volcano, and was liable to de-
struction at any moment, it was after
ward a subject Of remark among the VIC
Tins that Mr.. Westburys manner was
never more charming and friendly, nor
did his blue eyes ever wear more honest
/ look and wholesouled expression.
He had almost completed his round,
4 and was in fact delivering to the last Of
his victims $4,000 worth Of a certain
| issue of bonds which he had but mo-
ment before obtained from another firm
/ in return for his check, apparently bear
| ing the certifcation Of the bank, when
| one of those contretemps which some
times overtake the ablest strategists al
most upset his calculations.
The firm in question had but the pre-
ceding day sold precisely that amount Of
/ the bonds in question, and when Mr..
I Westbury handed the head of the house
/ his package of bonds, the latter passed
| them on to his head clerk for examination
before giving Westbury the proceeds.
! Now the clerk was a sharp youngster,
and as soon as his eyes fell upon them he
recognized from the number that they
were the identical bonds which his firm
had sold the day before to another house
In the 'street."
Without a word he slipped out the back
door of the Office and ran to their Office.
In answer to his hurried inquiry he
learned that the young stranger had but
a few moments before taken the bonds
away, having paid for them with certi-
fed check. A messenger was at once dis
patched to the bank, and the clerk few
I Ddck TO MS OWL OIuces AuAl OF uSpAClun.
Westbury, however, had already taken
alarm at the delay, and pleading that he
was late in keeping an engagement, and
asking the broker to put the money to his
credit, he called a cab and drove away
! Just as the breathless clerk came back.
OF course the messenger came back
with the news that Westbury had drawn
all his money out of the hank the day be-
fore, and the news quickly went around
the street. Some of the firms which had
been victimized with the forged certif-
cation kept silence with regard to their
loss, but enough was known to show that
the clever scamp had made away with the
sum of money which has been mentioned.
The last known of Mr.. Westbury was
that he discharged his cab few blocks
away from Wall street, and the entire de-
tective force failed to trace him. 1t was
perhaps q satisfaction to his victims to
learn that just prior to his appearance on
these shores, the confidential clerk Of a
leading London banker had been dis
charged for dishonesty, and had only es-
capped prosecution by accident. As he
corresponded in appearance with Mr..
Westbury, it was judged that they were
one and the same person.-Gavin Pen
dergast In Once o Week.