The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-14
@. .o.o.o.o.S.o.o.o.o..o.o.c.o.s

~ ID you ever hear of the New York
 C. Bank robbery? No? Well, 4~> your father will remember. It happened twentyfour years ago, one Sunday morning in October, 1881. Cash and securities amounting to more than s2, 900, 900 were stolen from the bank vaults. About $25000 in cash was realized, the remainder being in securities, among which were thirty United States gold bonds bearing interest at 4 per cent. It was the most sensational crime of its kind in police annals. Nothing was heard of the bonds and by a special act of Congress they were cancelled and new ones issued. By the superhuman efforts of the inspector of the New York po- lice four well known crooks and po- liceman members of the cleverest gang of bank robbers in the states were sent to prison for the crime. But all of his great ingenuity was never able to penetrate the mystery and learn who conceived the daring idea and received the great fortune comprised in the thirty missing bonds.
 It was surmised that two of the most brilliant crooks that ever raised a draft or forged a note were head and tail of the procession. But nothing could be proved. The five convicted burglars would not utter an discriminating word for per
 
 police department in the Union was on the alert, no trace could be found of the suspects. One of them was a man, the other a woman. The former was known to the police as the Professor" the latter as the "Queen of Sheba." though she was sometimes called inelegantly "Sheenie Annie" Of the "PProfessor" it had been only said that he was a son. born on the left hand, of one of the crowned heads of Europe: a Heidelberg and Oxford graduate. with the right to put any part of the alphabet after his name it he so desired The woman was a product of the New York ghetto; beau tiful to a fault, with the superhuman sharpness of the street combined with natural genius and a brilliant personality Together they were as cold-blooded and Machlavellian proposition as ever came down the Great White Way. A dirty hand in a dirty glove
 At the time of the C. bank robbery I had been one year in the United States secret service. l had learned the initial ropes perfectly, and of course, like any other detective, took an inordinary inter- est in the case that had started the whole country shouting. But, as I say, though the governments best men were scattered al lover the world, not a trace was discov- cred of either the "professor" or the "Queen of Sheba," nor one of the thirty United States gold bonds. They seemed to have completely evaporated. It was not until fifteen years later that Uncle Sam at last got on the track of the missing se- curities and the clue to the mystery. And l.. Capt. John Smith, then in charge of the New York district of the United States secret service, had the honorSto be col lector for the long defaulted government. It was on a drzzlng Monday morning, in late September, 1896, that a messenger from the A bank hurried into my office on Nassau street, touched his cap an1 said:
 "Captain Smith, Acting Assistant Treas urer, MT. Mercy, of the sub-treasury, sent me round to ask you if you will kindly see alim at once. He says it's very inl- portant."
 Calls from the sub-treasury are impor- tant, and, accompanied by the messen- ger, I lost not time in reaching Wall street.
 was ushered into the acting assistant treasurer's office. Mir. Mercy was small man with a face that seemed all profile and a concise, rapid-tlre vocabulary
 Captain Smith," he began without any preamble, "by a remarkable chance 1 have now in my possession one of those thirty government bonds that were stolen In the C. bank robbery fifteen years ss. There it Is. A bond for $2o,0OO. It