ank and get them to certify my check." Then when at the bank
he would take out both checks, letting the messenger only get a glimpse
of one, and that would be the small $240 one, which Brea would pass in
through the window with a request to have it certified. This would be
done, and when handed out, of course, Brea was to change it and hand the
messenger the big one of home manufacture.

It seemed impossible for the scheme to fail, and success in it meant on
the surface comparative wealth for us all, with, perhaps, in the not
distant future an entrance through the McAllister-guarded portals of the
Four Hundred.

But here we have a vivid instance of how easily an elaborate scheme can
by the merest accident fall to pieces.

The night before the expected coup we met James for a final full-dress
rehearsal for the morrow, and after everything was settled adjourned to
the uptown Delmonico's for supper. It so happened that Detective George
Elder was there. This Elder was a bright fellow, was in a ring--but not
in our ring--and, of course, had his bank account, diamond pin and
turnout for the road. He had had some acquaintance with me, but the rest
of the party were strangers. I did not see him at the time, but it would
seem he was curious, even suspicious, from some scraps of conversation
he overheard. However, neither his curiosity nor suspicion would have
been of any consequence or concern to us had it not been that, in going
out, Brea left on the table with some papers the memorandum or pro forma
bill of the bonds given him the day before by the bankers. Strangely
enough, the body of the bill alone was intact. The heading bearing the
name of the firm and purchaser had been torn off and destroyed.

Elder picked it up and, having some vague suspicions of a plot
somewhere, he determined to go around among the hundred or more bankers
and brokers in and around Wall street and investigate quietly, without
making any report to his superiors, his immediate superior being, of
course, our honest friend, the worthy chief of the detective force, who
was anxiously looking for his percentage of the deal. The whole force
was split up into cliques, each intensely jealous of every other, each
with its own stamping grounds, and each strictly protected his own
preserves.

At 9:30 the next morning Elder started around carrying the fragment of
the memorandum he had picked up from bank to bank and from one broker to
the other. He had spent