The herald., 1896-05-24

VI inc contrary the police are Often
most serviceable. They have been en-
gagged upon this case now for three days.
The papers say that they are following up
every clue with their accustomed energy
and shrewdness. Nothing could be better.
The real criminal, whoever he is, hears that
the police are after him. He knows from
| experience, their thick headedness and
their propensity to laundering; conse-
quently he will be lulled into security and
We will be able to come upon him when he
least expects it."
I laughed at the old mans sarcasm and
at this open exhibition of contempt for his
official colleagues.
They are all very WELL" he continued,
except when they have to use their brains.
and then they are at fault, for the reason
| that they are deficient in the article. You
hear, often, about the police having unrav-
elled this or that mystery but, if you look
| 1t up, YOU Will find that it was no mystery
at all. When they come to downright
mystery, 1t never is unraveled When they
encounter q crilainal man or woman who
has brains and VINO deliberately sets to
| work to conceal his or hCr crime, they fail
| The reason they fail is that they are de-
fcient in the power of observation ana an
alysis. They may have one, but tncy
haven't the other.
| The great secret of success in the d.
lection OF criminals, is the skill with whlcl!
| one Is able to reason backwards from the
effect to the cause. We usually reason that
IL certain causes exist, they will produce
such and such effects; we very seldom
| have occasion to take ain effect, an exist
ing state of things, and reason back to the
unknown cause which produced it, and yer
| this manner of reasoning should be- and
is, with practice, fully as easy as the other
Now l will bet you anything that you
never saw an effect which preceded it's
cause"
| acknowledged that l had not and
1 doubted II there could be such a thing.
| why, man pushing a wheel barrow Of
course; no! no! ho You can't dispute that
The cause is the man and the effect is the
wheel-barrow, which precedcs the cause
But think I've heard enough of the bust
ness for tonight. I'll sleep on it, and will
go over the ground tomorrow. Can you
| meet me in the office of the bank tomorrow
morning at 1902"
| assured him that we would be on hand
and we were about to take our departure,
when 1t occurred to me that had not asked
| him about his terms
Il forgot" said |, ito ask you about
terms 70; an Investigation Of this sort, and
whether it is customary to pay something
n advance
my terms depend good deal upon the
result II we are successful, shall charge
you considerably mere than If we are not
and, as regards an advance payment, you
may as well give me tel dollars now
/ handed him bill OF the denomination
he asked for. He looked at i; carefully. as
II to be sure Of its gsnuineness and then,
stuffed it into his pocket.
Cant you give me some sort of an opin-
ion now" l asked. ices it seem possible
to you, from what have told you, that this
sides Mr.. McKeever?'
Eyes! L can give you an opinion now.
1t won't bo worth much, as there are many
| details which are still lacking, and which
I must get hold of, before can get to the
bottom of the affair; but 1t will be worth,
anyway, az much as the sum you have paid
| me. will say that it is just possible that
Mr.. Mckeever was not the criminal; that,
| II he was not, he is or has been in great
danger of bodily injury and needs or needed
| youi dSSiotdiCc, anu, tuaI iuc lulel
o. thieves go. into the bank. before daylight
on Thanksgiving and that the safe was rob-
bed at, or near ten o'clock on the same
morning"
| When we were on our way home that
night, | remarked to Wolcott:
''Well I don't know how ii strikes you ;
but /. seems to mo that your friend Benja-
min IL e good deal of charlatan, and that
i've thorwn away ten dollars
why do you think that" he demanded
rather testify.
1T seemed to me that great deal that
he sad was said for effect. To use a slang
and very apt expression, he seemed to be
playing to the galleries. All that talk OF his
about reasoning back from the effect to the
cause, and about observation and analysis
and all that sort of clap-trap, made me
think CT Sherlock Holmes and Of the Chew
alier Dupin, and, as regards his opinion,
could have given as good an opinion N.Y.
SELF. What he said about the time of the
robbery was good guess and nothing
more; and, as to Mr.. McKeever having been
| in danger Of bodily injury and needing our
assistance. anybody would have known that
| % be sure because, if he was innocent,
| his keys must have been taken from him
and his pocket rfed for the combination
Not only that. but he must have met with
| foul play. have teo1 kidnapped, perhaps
murdered"
| The fact OF the matter is" answered
| Wolcoi. "-h'r IN rulpg seems easy enough
| % you. after BenJRmin has said it. You are
| like the Spanish courtiers who concluded
that it was the sinplest thing in the world
| 20 make an egg stand on end, after Column