El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-06-28
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Great Cases of Detective Burns---By William J. Burns
THE AMATEUR DETECTIVE

z ATE in the summer Of IS, as an
operative in the United States
secret service, was following the
trail Of a counterfeiter who had been
issuing $50 notes; and the scent had
become so warm mat 7 expected to
make an arrest within a few days.
But was stopped in the pursuit by
a telegram from Washington ordering
me TO D.. 10 meet a man named
ler US say Fidd. who had an 'impOr-
tant case for me. I wired back TO
Washington a plea of immineuce and
urgency in the matter in hand. The or
oers were repeated. So / detailed a
man TO pick up the cOunIerfeiters trail
where had dropped it and I took the
train TO D. in a cold fume Of re-
sentiment against Fidd.
knew all that there was to know
ABOUT tldl- Some years ago before,
ElCu mad been soliciting business for
pLolo-engraF whom the govern
--eul agents suspected Of having made
plates 10 print a counterfeit note. Eidd
mad secretly assisted the authorities
lie had cOOperared cOntideuCiallv with
the secret service in proving his en-
l-oseE sulLLl5 and ne had impressed
himself with the idea that ne had
shown a noticeable ability in the work.
lie had since become an amateur de-
-ecllFe. without pay operating by the
long distance QeCuCtIVe method on
every case that appeared in the news
papers, specializing in the literature
OF crime and the armchair study of
current murder mysteries and send
ing unsolicited advice and misinfOr-
nation to Washington whenever the
appearance of a new counterfeit was
reported In the press dispatches
lie had inherited a little money, in
the shape of two town lots and he
had married little more, in the per
son OF plump widow With her as
slsrance, he had set UP an office IN
D. as a real estate dealer, insurance
solicitor, typewriter agent and notary
public. with his desk in the window
Of q plumbers shOp-Of which he was
the landlord-and his wife keeping
mouse upstairs on the experience and
the furniture Of her previous marriage
The Amateur.
He was very shrewd looking
small man, with what is called a
'hatchet face and he believed in pay
ing good price for the material Of
his clothes and having them made by
a cheap tailor, so that he was always
dressed in the enduring shabbiness Of
insists He wore blue-pale neckLies.
I remembered him as havin~ Watery
blue eyes, like SKINNED milk. As a
matter OF 1acr his eyes were brOWnlsh
gray 1t was the necktie that put the
blue into my recollection of them.
Ever notice that about a necktie2
There was a story in the plumbers
shop that his wife had said he had
right pert little legs and il de-
scribed them picturesquely He wore
bicycle clips on his ankles, and stood
with his heels together, his knees
tight, and his calves curving out be-
hind him like the blade of a sickle"
1t gave him the pertuess Of a sparrow.
as If he were about to hop. But there
the resemblance ended. He never
chirped; he was never cheerful pub
Icly- and his silence was extensive /
enough TO cover all the confidential
Information In the archives of the
secret service
That silence was part Of his acquired
equipment as an amateur detective. no
one could ever have found out what
clue he was c0ncealing. Parenthet-
ically the first thing a detective has
TO be is a busy talker.
I had a deep feeling for Fidd-the
feeling that q fire chief has for a "buf-
falO' with police badge, that the