The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1907-03-15
THE MEXICAN ONES

James Cronin, special agent United
States treasury department, was
about as keen an operative as there
was in the secret service. His head
quarters were in Chicago, and many
a counterfeiter was sent over the
road by Jimmie" Cronin, as he was
affectionately called by his friends.
Cronin and Cheney were much the
same as regards ability, but Chena!
had ambitions (and was achieving
tllem) beyond the mere detection of
crime. Cronin hadn't any ambitions
beyond the running down Of smooth
fingered gentleman or smashing a
gang of counterfeiters He was a
great big, whole-souled Irishman, full
Of wit, and as brave as lion. He
was always poor; every cent he re-
ceived went through his fingers like
water, but, as he said to Cheney, with
a slight Irish brogue: "Phat the divil
good is money save to have fun wild?
Ye see, Jack, I haven't any one de-
pendent on me, and when l get too
old to work I'll kiss the world good
by" Cronin could have been a
riah man had he any desire to be a
CRATER. A great deal of money had
been offered him at different times.
but each time refused. He was as
honest as a sturdy oak, and Cheney
counted Cronin as one of his stanch~
est and best friends. The head of the
treasury department secret service
on more than one occasion had
been informed by Col. Cheney of
some exceptionally good work that had
been done by Cronin
Cronin came in Cheney's Office one
day, and after his salutation of "Top
O. the mornin' to We, Jack" threw six
bright silver dollars on the desk
and said:
What do you think of that bunch
of silver?"
Cheney knew Immediately the
queer money was being passed. and
Cronin had discovered it, and want
ed his advice, and cooperation on the
case. He picked up the silver dollars
one by one, fingered them carefully
amined the milling and stamping
Then he passed each one between
the thumb and forefinger of his right
hand. After that a pair of feather
weight scales came into play, and
the coins were carefully weighed.
Cheney stacked five in one pile and
the sixth coin he tossed over to
Cronin.
THAT coins all right, Jimmie, but
these five are queer
Right We are, Cheney, but that's
the 'queerest queer I've ever laid my
eyes on"
Eyes, I notice it. The silver in
these five queer coins is of a higher
alloy than the American coin. In
trinsically, the spurious coins are of
more value than the real coin. That's
paradox, but it's true one"
well, whatever paradox u.s. it
sounds all right to me-
'Where'd you pick up these coins,
Jimmie?"
lover in the First National three
weeks ago. Later l found them in
several other banks, and reports from
the west indicate that part of the
country is flooded with them
Amy suspicious, Cronin?"
Mary one, Cheney They come
from everywhere, country banks, big
stores, railroads, coal companies, and
what not. Why, hang it, any man
would take one of those coins and
never notice it, An expert expert
would be fooled. You would have
taken number of them without a
murmur So would l. Amt it 500"
Sure thing" murmured Cheney.
At the same time he was studying the
coins with the microscope. "Cronin,"
he continued, these coins all bear
the mill mark of the San Francisco
mint. Made any Investigations along
that line?'
mo, not yet. I've just been feeling
around. I reported it to the chief,
and he directed me to run it down.
Blamed easy thing for the chief to
sit in Washington and say run 'em
down. but it's not so easy to do it,
Cheney was busy, but heard every
word Cronin had spoken. He had
dual intellect. He could hear and
understand intelligently what a per-
son was talking about and at the
same time his mind could be working
out some sort of problem.
Excuse me minute, Cronin." he
said, and was gone.
The colonel came back in about Is
minutes and laid down one of the
coins with section cut out.
Il thought so, Jimmie" he re-
marked
Thought what?" snapped Cronin.
These coins are Mexican pesos,
Their value in United States money
is 371s cents. The man, or gang.
can buy all these Mexicans they
want, recast them into our dollars.
and net 62h cents profit. Queer. too,
isn't it. Cronin, the counterfeits
are better silver than the good dol
lars?"