a welcome visitor to all. About once a month he came to the car, finely dressed, sporting diamonds and a gold-headed cane, and plentifully supplied with choice brandy, whiskey, and cigars. Reminiscences, stories, and the bottle, all circulated freely. The guest assisted in the work with alacrity, improving favorable opportunities to stuff with letters pockets made expressly for the purpose. According to the testimony of Harmon, Wales was much more diligent as a volunteer than when actually employed in the service.

Sometimes Wales rode in the mail-room through to Buffalo, but generally, on pretense of seeking rest, retired to the sleeping-coach. The forged indorsements were usually in the handwriting of both. The proceeds of the drafts were shared equally.

Having secured one of the accomplices, special agent J. S. Elwell, on the part of the post-office department, and Pinkerton's agency on the part of Adams Express Company, continued the pursuit of the other with unabated vigor. Except from a few, the arrest of Wales was kept a profound secret for fear of alarming Dudley. It will be remembered that the two saw each other last at the Metropolitan Hotel, in New York city, immediately after the extraordinary raid on the National Express Company, at Troy. On paying the hotel bill, Dudley informed the clerk that he was going to Boston, and actually went to the depot with his wife on the time of the Boston train. Confidentially, however, he told Wales that he was going to Monroe, Michigan, a town between Toledo and Detroit, and that he had already purchased tickets over the Great Western. With a promise on the part of Dudley to write in about three weeks, the friends shook hands and parted.

One of Major Franklin's most skillful agents was detailed to follow on the trail of the fugitives. Several weeks had elapsed since the separation in New York city, and the track was comparatively cold. At Monroe, Michigan, he heard of them, but they had departed no one could tell whither. A

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man and wife, traveling over crowded thoroughfares, ordinarily attract little attention, and in a few hours, or at most in a few days, all traces of them are obliterated. Fellow-passengers disperse in different directions to the ends of the earth. In the swelling tide of life, railway conductors do not remember individual faces. While hotel registers preserve the chirography of guests, a journey across the breadth of the continent may be accomplished continuously, so that a search through all the hostelries from Boston to San Francisco might prove labor lost, though the parties pursued had just traversed the entire distance. One may hide most effectually in the multitude.

The detective learned that Dudley and wife traveled with a canary-bird and wooden bandbox. By adroit and guarded inquiries he tracked them to Kalamazoo, to Jackson and Detroit, holding the hidden thread firmly in hand. At every stage of the pursuit unavoidable delays occurred, so that the fugitives, though little dreaming that keen-scented danger dogged their heels, easily kept several weeks ahead. At Detroit, the detective crossed the St. Clair River, and, by means of the canary-bird and wooden bandbox, followed the clue to the Grand Trunk depot, and thence to Montreal, conductors, hackmen, and station agents at different points furnishing the requisite information.

At Montreal, the thread which had led the way prosperously through wide wanderings suddenly snapped asunder, and the end could not be recovered again, the canary-bird and wooden bandbox disappearing from the horizon of the operative. No one could give any account of the exit of the oddly freighted couple.

Toward the close of April, the officers engaged on the case became satisfied that Dudley was hiding in Boston, or one of the adjacent villages. A suspicious character stopping temporarily at Salem was placed under close surveillance, on the supposition that he was the man. The identification was the more difficult as very few people knew the forger by sight.

To meet this trouble, special agent Elwell solicited the aid of Mr. I. F. Loomis, general agent of the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who countersigned a policy for Dudley in 1869, and kept up a partial acquaintance with him afterwards. Mr. Loomis, believing that the public interest required the sacrifice of individual preferences, reluctantly consented to assist, and started eastward April 26th, expecting at the time to be detained from home but a few days. He went to Salem, and, after taking a good look at the supposed forger, was compelled to inform the detectives that they were watching the wrong man. Although gravely disappointed, they still held to the belief that he was lurking somewhere not far away, and that time and perseverance would discover the haunt.

For many days the officers, accompanied by Mr. Loomis, explored the labyrinthine streets of Boston, and canvassed the beautiful suburban villages encircling the city. Theatres, concert saloons, beer gardens, and other places of resort, were "wearied with inquest of beseeching looks," in the vain hope of ending by a lucky hit the prolonged and provoking chase. If the man of many aliases appeared abroad, they were not fortunate enough to encounter him; nor could they find the slightest clue to his retreat.

It was obvious, too, that, though unaware of his captivity, Dudley had resolved to hold no further communication with Wales, fearing danger from his recklessness and garrulity. At all events, correspondence by mail ceased entirely. Had no trouble arisen, he might perhaps, after a while, have renewed the intimacy; but, for the present at least, he was evidently taking counsel of his fears.

Meanwhile the exhaustless ingenuity of Major Pinkerton, and of his able corps of superintendents, devised scheme after scheme for the discovery of the perplexing secret. The family of Mrs. Dudley resided at Allegheny City, a sister being employed as clerk in a store at Pittsburgh. A female detective, of talents and address, was detailed by Major Pin

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kerton to cultivate the acquaintance of this young lady. Appearing on the scene of action, she visited the store, and made numerous purchases, always dealing with Miss Adelaide, and paying great deference to her judgment. The acquaintance begun across the counter soon ripened into intimacy, the gentle stranger experiencing no other pleasure comparable to that derived from the society of her new friend. They rode to

"She visited the store, and made numerous purchases, always dealing with Miss Adelaide."

gether, and spent whole evenings in delightful conversation. The visitor thought it hard that a young lady of such agreeable manners and rare accomplishments should be doomed to drag out an existence so well fitted for more elevated pursuits, in measuring ribbons for querulous customers, and

had under consideration various plans for transferring her to a more congenial sphere. It was not unnatural that the

interest manifested for the welfare of the young lady should expand so as to embrace within its circumference the other members of the family. About most of them Miss Adelaide conversed freely; but when reference, however guarded, was made to the absent sister, she wrapped herself in an armor of impenetrable reserve, dropping a single word only that threw the slightest light upon the mystery. In a moment of unusual confidence she divulged the fact that her sister was living somewhere near Boston, but the most adroit turns of conversation, at instants of the most self-revealing intimacy, failed to surprise her into any additional disclosure.

Overmatched by the "close-mouthed" yet unsuspecting girl, the friend planned a final piece of strategy. She gave out that she intended to make a trip through New England, embracing Boston in the route, and offered, if Miss Adelaide would go as a companion, to bear all the expenses of the journey. This device failed with the rest, the young lady gently, but firmly, declining the invitation. Driven to her wits' end, on the eve of departure she sought Miss Adelaide for the final adieu, and, taking from her pocket a pencil and memorandum-book, requested her to write down the address of her sister, as it would give her great pleasure to form her acquaintance, provided she remained long enough in Boston to permit her to call. "I should be happy to," replied Miss Adelaide, "but I do not know it myself. Sister rarely writes, and is very uncommunicative about particulars." Baffled at every point by a vigilance that never slept, the detective gave up the job in despair.

No sooner, however, was one line of operations abandoned than another was adopted, the fertility and expedients of Major Pinkerton and his aids growing with the emergency. Once more Miss Adelaide was selected as the instrument to

be played upon. A bogus telegram was concocted announcing that Robert had met with a dangerous accident, and urging the sister to come on immediately. Meanwhile she was to telegraph to the old address. The dispatch, signed