The Southern herald., 1916-09-29

Gllg hAAl6 uDbuL NAANAA C'AN Se~A'+
Take bank accounts, for instance.
Many people have money in bank
which lies there inactive. There is
not one man in five, having such an ac-
count, who can tell the amount of it."
This statement was launched dur
ing the evening meal at Mrs. Hud-
sons very respectable boarding house
in the prosperous little town of New
Beaufort, which slumbers in one of the
valleys of central New York.
Il must take issue with you there" F"
ventured the elderly rector of the Epis-
copal church who, being widower,
boarded with Mrs. Hudson. Il, for in
stance, have managed to save little
money for old age and | can tell the
amount of it to a penny"
"And | know just how much have
on deposit" insisted Miss Dolan, the
school teacher.
"And | am quite sure Of mine" as
serted buxom widow who had collect
ed life insurance.
"As a test Of my contention" said
Gard, 81 am willing to pledge box Of
candy to each of the ladies and cigars
to the gentlemen who will set down
the exact amounts of their inactive ac-
counts in the First National bank and
then prove their figures correct by ap-
plication to the cashier"
This proposal appealed to those who
had been drawn into the incipient con-
troversy. Next day they asked for the
figures, and each had won his reward.
Gard seemed chagrined that his theory
should have thus gone to the winds,
but he cheerfully stood treat.
For he had established fact very
important to him. The inactive ac-
counts of the First National bank of
New Beaufort were intact.
This was one of the first steps in an
investigation of financial institution
which, while seemingly in the best of
condition, was suspected of having
been looted for hundreds of thousands
of dollars. Special agents Of the de-
partment of justice knew that an Of
fetal of the bank had been trading
heavily in Wall street and that he had
lost. Gard, a member of this new de-
tectiye force of the federal govern
ment, had been sent to investigate.
Representing himself as bookkeeper
he had secured a position with the
leading grocer and had come to board
with Mrs Hudson.
He stayed three weeks. At the end
of that time he reported the shortage,
fixed the blame upon the man re-
sponsible for it, showed the methods
used, cited the accounts from which
the money had been stolen, told what
accounts were still intact. Yet he had
never been inside the bank, had seen
none of its books, had consulted with
nobody familiar with them, had re-
ceived no confessions. The manner in
which he accomplished these seeming
ly impossible ends illustrates most ex-
cellently the methods used by this new
detective agency of the government.
It was a strange conspiracy of cir
cumstances that brought to New Beau
fort detectives from three different
services on the night, two months
later, that Conrad Compton, the enter.
prising citizen and banker, was giving
his big party.
There was McCord, plain-clothes
man from New York. McCord would
not have been in New Beaufort but
for the ramiflcations of the New York
police department in keeping track Of
these middle class criminals who live
through the trade Of burglary-a call
ing that is sometimes refined into art.
And the police department would not
have come into possession of a certain
tip if "Speck" Thompson had not done
his bit up the river and returned to
his old haunts so broken that he chose
to become a stool pigeon because he
was no longer up to second story
work.
Speck had found that Dutch" Shro-
der had arranged to crack safe and
that the scene of the cracking was
New Beaufort. He had tipped the
matter off to the police, and hence Nc
Cords presence in a community that
was far from metropolitan. He repre-
scented the first of the detective serv-
Ices.
The second such service was repre-
scented by Ogram Newton, bank ex-
aminer in the service of the treasury
department His district was central
New York. For three years he had
been taking an occasional look into the
books of the various national banks
Of his district, checking up assets and
liabilities. inQuiring into the value Of
the paper held by the banks. Two
weeks before Conrad Compton gave
his party Newton had been In New
Beaufort and had gone thoroughly into
the affairs of the bank. Its books we're
models Of efficiency and there was no
flaw to be found in any Of its securi-
ties or loans. Newton had given the
institution his o. K. and had passed
on to other towns.
But there was a feeling Of unrest