Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-09-17
DAILY STORY
THE DETECTIVE GENIUS.
IOriginal.l

JUS. recognized this and had every con- |
fidence in his star of destiny. That
star went down eventually and left !.
him in the dark like other people. The
next best thing to luck l consider In
tuition, or the feeling that something
is so without knowing it to be so.
made big reputation in my day, :
my only aids being these two-luck !
and feeling. The case that did me
most good and made my superiors
think | was a great detective were
brought about almost exclusively by
luck. l was in government service
then and was sent out west to look
up the perpetrators of some $1,000
| counterfeit bills. st. Louis was the
point the money was supposed to EN-
anate from, and there l went. This
was the only pointer l had, and my
work was very much like looking for
a needle in a haystack.
A good way to get rid of these coun-
| terfeits Of large denominations is In
| gambling houses where large stakes
are played for. There's too much ex-
element for people to scrutinize any
| thing closely. After spending several
days without even getting q suspicion
| of a clcw to work on l went one even
ing into a gambling den. / didn't go
| there to get clcw because l hadn't
| then thought of the facilities such
places afforded for distributing the
| queer" l went because-I don't
| know what l went for. The place had
been recently opened. and the owner. a
respectable looking man, was dealing
| faro | watched the game for some
time, went out to the theater and came
back about half past II. Fact is l
was hungry and I'd heard that fine
supper was set out after II. After
supper l lit a cigar and went to the
faro table. The game, which when
had left 1t early in the evening was
small, had grown very large. l no
ticed several piles before different
players to indicate that the bank was
having a run of bad luck.
I've always been a bit Of a gambler
myself. l had no money to play with,
for | was at the time drawing Il small
salary and really had no funds with
me except for ordinary expenses. The
truth is that from the time l had en-
tered the gambling place l had burned
to take q hand at the game. | had
torn myself away to the theater, and
question if my return was not as much
due to the fascination the game had
for me as the supper. At any rate, the
longer l looked on the more resiStless
became my desire to try my luck. l
had several of the $1,000 counterfeit
bills in my pocket and was tempted to
make a start in the game with one of
them, but besides the dishOnOr of play
ing counterfeit money, suppose should
be detected using it. l could never ex-
plain the matter. 1t was uneXplain-
able. Then the idea came into my
head that | might claim l was work
ing in the line of my business, though
that would he pretty thin. Anyway, l
finally couldn't withstand the tempta-
ton any longer and, pulling out one of
the bills, slapped 1t on the big square
to win.
The dealer started. 1t was natural
that he should start. Thousand dollar
bills weren't plentiful, though / had
caught sight of two or three during the
| evening changing hands. One winner
l had seen paid one by the bank. Still,
coppering with one was unusual. The
dealer looked at me with the most
> curious expression 1 ever saw on 4
mans face. Then he asked as calmly
as sucking dove:
How much stands?"
give hundred" l said.
The cards were dealt. and the big
square won. l was handed five 800
bills, four of which l showed in my
pocket with the counterfeit, putting
, the other on the game. l soon lost all
, / had won and. realizing the risk had
/, run, left the house.
= On the street a man spoke to me
LET up" he said. There's been de
tectives sent out from Washington
probably in town now"
1t didn't take me six months to dis
= cover that I'd struck something pretty
big, though l hadn't the remotest idea
of an explanation.
"All right" said. Whats the mex
), move?
J Don't know yet. Who put you on =
i You keep your end to yourself, an(
e I'll keep mine"
0 what were you up to, anyway
shown the bill?"
I remembered the curious look o.
the dealer when I'd made my bet, ant
4 a ray of light began TO break in OF
n me. The faro bank must be a distribut
G ing point. Persons supplied with thu
bills would come in, bet them anC
- they would be paid out to winner.
- who if they discovered the counter
=. felt, would be chary of making
- charge that would be confession tina
:, they had been gambling.
"a, I'm only telling you this story to IL
~ lustrate what luck will do for a man
- How proved my suspicious and nah
bed the whole gang is story in il
ie self and one in which l take SOM
q pride, but that was dead easy in com
u parison with getting clew wher
u there was no clew in sight. When
offered the bill, not knowing me, TIL
dealer showed surprise. When l wen