Page:Memoirs of the United States Secret Service.djvu/104

 When the rebellion broke out, he saw a glorious haul in prospective, at once, when the Postal and Legal Tender U. S. notes appeared. He put up his money on it, and the grand results of his efforts at this time were immensely profitable. He got out fair counterfeit plates of the $1's the $2's the $10's and the $20's. These succeeded finely—but the specially successful note was the Legal Tender $50, which proved the most dangerous Counterfeit, as well as the most accurate imitation, of all that ever were got out in this country.

This last named note is defective in the vignette head, where the buttons of the coat of Hancock are incorrectly placed, and upon the left hand corner of the back the repeated numerals "50" are run together irregularly. But bankers, brokers, merchants, railroad-men—everybody took this note without challenging; and a large quantity were shoved, in all directions. The $50 legal-tender was a prime success, and the coney men everywhere were jubilant over this nicely accomplished imposition, of which not less than half a million dollars got into market.

Bill was arrested by the former U. S. Detectives, but he was released, about the time this counterfeit was discovered. He then went to work to introduce another capital bogus issue, after the original U. S. Compound Interest note, of the higher demonination of $100. This undertaking entailed a heavy outlay of ready cash, but Bill was equal to the emergency. "Young Ned," a pal, who stole the back impressions of this note from the U. S. Treasury, and who knew all the "koniackers" far and near, was no longer needed. Bill and his companions feared him, and so a plot was entered upon to "put him out of harm's way." He was poisoned in Washington, and died an awful death. His secrets and the confidences of the busy tribe who had