"William, in turn, conducted the party to a mausoleum of were living in a state of outlawry in a remote part of Texas, the terror and scourge of the country for many miles around. The successful issue of this case cured the timidity of the novice, causing him to rely with absolute self-confidence upon the extent and fertility of his own resources in subsequent efforts to rid the service of criminals. Before the expiration of the one hundred days of apprenticeship, he made three other arrests, though neither of the cases presented any features of marked interest. A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE. 65 In the fall of 1871, Mr. Furay was directed to go to Kansas to assist temporarily the special agent in that state. Among the papers placed in his hands for investigation were those relating to the loss of two registered packages forwarded from St. Louis on the 2d and 5th of December, 1870, and directed respectively to Elk City and Elk Falls, Kansas. From Humboldt, the railroad town through which both those offices received their mails from the outside world, the two packages were sent westward on the 7th, and reached Eureka, fifty-five miles distant, the same day. At that time, through some confusion in the reorganization of routes, the offices, both at Elk Falls and Elk City, were left without supply. On the 22d of December, the packages were forwarded from Eureka to New Albany in the direction of their destination, and the postmaster at that point, having no established communication with either office, returned them to the railroad, so that, after a circuit of over one hundred miles through the interior, they reached Humboldt the second time on the 27th. On the 29th the packages were again dispatched to Eureka. Whenever registered letters are lost, and the records are properly kept, the department, by means of "tracers," can determine where they disappear. Each office through which the missing package passed is required to indorse on the tracer the dates of its arrival and departure, and to give the name and official description of the party whose receipt is held for it. As both packages failed to reach the offices of destination, half a dozen tracers were sent out during the next few months. Most of them were suppressed somewhere on the route. After long delay and many inquiries, two finally completed the circuit, and were returned to the special agent, but contributed little toward the elucidation of the subject. From Humboldt to Eureka they followed the packages on the second trip, or the one made December 29th. The office at Eureka claimed to have sent them on by the next mail, and to hold the receipt of the postmaster at New Albany; but the latter persisted in going back to the record of the first trip, and in replying to all interrogatories with the answer that they passed through his hands on the 22d. In September, eight months after the occurrence of the losses, Mr. Furay set out on a tour over the several routes, with the view of ascertaining, if possible, who was the thief. Reaching Eureka on the evening of the 11th, he proceeded to examine the records, and make a critical survey of the situation. The postmaster, who was also the editor of the "Here is but one," remarked the agent. "I must have the other also." village newspaper, left the management of the office almost exclusively to an assistant named Smythe, in whom he reposed unbounded confidence. According to the transit sheet, the lost packages left Eureka December 22d, and again on the 2d of January,-in the latter THE MISSING RECEIPT. 67 instance with three others for Elk Falls, which had arrived during the interim. The special agent then called for the receipts from the postmaster at New Albany. Of course there should have been two of these, one dated December 22d, for two packages, and the other dated January 2d, for five. A receipt for the five, dated December 29th, was promptly produced, when the assistant postmaster paused in his labors. "Here is but one," remarked the agent. "I must have the other also." Smythe, who laid his hand upon the first without hesitating an instant, and who was evidently methodical and careful in the arrangement of papers, began to search for the missing document, but his cold, evasive, yet systematic manner of doing so at once satisfied the detective that he did not intend to find it. As the receipt already exhibited traced the lost letters out of the office on their second round, it was not apparent at first how the disappearance of its mate could benefit the assistant. After hunting a while, he remarked, "I can't find it. I had them both on each of the visits of the other special agent, and presume he must have wrapped it up with the papers.” "We will see," said Mr. Furay, to whom every scrap relating to the losses had been transferred. He examined the entire bundle then and there, but the receipt was not in it. "It is strange," continued the young man, reflectively. "I can't for my life imagine where it has gone to." The correctness of the intuition of the detective, based wholly on the manner of the assistant, conferred an interest on that scrap of paper to which it did not seem to be intrinsically entitled. His curiosity was stimulated to follow the lead further, in the vague hope that the clue might guide the way to important discoveries. Accordingly, with an air of indifference that very falsely translated his real eagerness and anxiety, he picked up the receipt with the careless remark that he would file it with the other papers. It was now nearly dark, and the special agent went to the hotel for supper. Hurrying through the meal, he called for lights, and repaired to his own room to study the mysterious connection between an apparently insignificant scrap of manuscript and the peculiar manner of the assistant postmaster. "Hurrying through the meal, he repaired to his own room, to study an apparently insignificant scrap of manuscript." Bending over the writing, he soon discovered that the "9," in the date "December 29," had been raised from a 2, the job being executed with a degree of care and precision which clearly indicated that the operator was a rascal of no ordinary |