Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-11-09

by that time the cash would have been
safely slowed. and how or where or to
whom could anything be traced?
So in council they had decided to be
content with the enormous amount they
had. The last batch of bills was in the
mail Only one day more, and the strain
on the nerves would he over. That day
Noyes bought bonds and drew cash for
more than 100000. at o'clock they
sat down to lunch, their last in London,
and then went direct to Macs apart
mcnts in James place.
All the material fer making fraudu-
lent bills was there, and what could be
burned was thrown into the crate, and
the rest into the Thames from London
bridge. The three were there, and they
were happy. They had engineered gi-
gantic scheme, had struck for wealth
and won. The short cut to fortune in de-
fiance of fate had been traversed, and
now they set about a grateful task-that
Of getting themselves and their rich
argosy out Of England. Mac, being the
artist of the party, and having executed
tie actual writing, drew the sealed box
fire and began throwing them in one by
one. In doing so he occasionally would
throw some bill more elaborate than the
common run ON the floor beside his
chair. He had finished his task and took
from the floor those he had thrown
there, looked ut them for a moment,
then crumbling them together raised
his hand to throw them in the fire, but
as the devil always forsakcs his friends
at the critical moment he stopped,
smoothed out the bills, and turning to
the others said: Boys, these are per-
feet works of art. 1t is pity to destroy
them. From our point of view it was,
since it was only necessary to drop them
into tho mail, and they would coin US
thousands Then George said, Suppose
We send them III. " The others said, "All
right" and our doom was sealed.
There were i'll the lot 10 bills of ex-
change for a2G, 600. A date had been left
off one of them! They failed to notice
it! Poor fools, we had sold ourselves!
Was this an accident! No, it was
Nemesis. 1t was anything you want to
call 1t, but 1t was not an accident.
So letter was written, the bills,
with memorandum, Enclosed the envelope
directed and stamped, and the three
fools went to Birmingham, mailed the
letters, and then laughed over their sue.
o.ss in the fight against society, felici-
tating themselves that they had safely
traversed the short cut to fortune. There
is no short cut by wrongdoing to fortune
As that fatal letter slipped from their
fingers into the mailbox the last act Of
the deadly tragedy began. When it end
ed, the curtain fell upon us, descending
from the dock into the chill dungeons
of Newgate, never, so far as the sentence
was concerned, to emerge again.
On Tuesday morning the letter with
the bills arrived at the bank Follow
ing the routine, they went to the dis
count department, We're discounted and
placed to my credit. As had a balance
of G2O, 900. when the proceeds of the
bills We're added to it it brought up the
whole to the handsome sum of e46, 900.
When the bills arrived at the bank, a
strange thing occurred. The fatal omis-
sion was made on an acceptance of Bly,
denstein 81 &C.. a great banking firm in
London. The discount clerk noticed the
omission of the date of acceptance, but
this being a mere formality he thought
it clerical error OH the part of the
tookkeeper of Blydenstein & Co. He
made 10 report Of the matter, and it
was discounted along with the other IS
which were put away in the vaults with
the patches that had preceded it and
laid it aside until the next day, which
was Wednesday. At half past 10 he gave
it to the bank messenger, telling him
when he went his regular rounds to take
the bill to Blydenstein's and request
them to correct the omission.
AT 2 p. IN. on Tuesday Noyes went to
Jay Cooke & Co. ordered 100000 in
United States bonds and gave them a
check on the Bank Of England for the
amount. He was to call for the bonds
! next day, of course, after the check had
gone through the clearing house and
had been paid.
As soon as the bank opened on
Wednesday, in order to test if every
| thing was all right. Moves sent in a
messenger with n small check, and the
! money was thrown ont as at all other
| times without remark. And that was a
| complete demonstration that everything
was all right. So it was then, but with
i'll 80 minutes from that second the mes
seDger was going TO start with the bill
| to Blydensteir' s for correction.
This was 10 O'Clock Wednesday. The
bills had been % hours in the possession
Of the bank, had been discounted and
the proceeds placed to my credit fer "a
hours
Who with intellect less than an arch.
angels could have dreamed the true
combination? First of all, that men bril-.
liant and clever, gambling with thei,
| lives, could have made such an omis.
sion, damning, fatal; second. if made,
that the great Bank Of England, thought
absolutely infaliible by the whole world.
conservative. supposedly cautious, would
have discounted bill for 60 900 with
the date ont of the acceptance, and bav'
ing done SO hold the bill we'll on into
the second DAY without q discovery. and