Page:Memoirs of the United States Secret Service.djvu/121

 His real name was James Boyd, Jr., but he passed under the cognomen which heads this article, and for a period he held the office of Deputy Sheriff, at Frelingsburg, Canada. He was also nominally a Detective, informer, merchant, traveller—each in turn—and was mail-carrier, and said to have been at one time a deputy post-master at the town mentioned, where he had resided from his youth upward, although born in Massachusetts. In this vicinity, the people had become aware that a large amount of counterfeit money was in circulation from time to time, and every now and then, fresh batches of bogus notes found their way mysteriously about, among the trades-men. But Boyd was not suspected, though from the increase of the coney men in that region after a while, one of the streets in the town of Frelingsburg was christened "Coniack" Street.

At an early period in his life, Boyd had heard a good deal about counterfeiting, and he conceived that this profession, if well followed, pointed out a right "royal road" to speedy fortune. He possessed a money-making turn of mind, and thought he saw the way clear to mass up wealth, through this lawless means. He married at a very early age, and was exceedingly ambitious to get rapidly ahead in pecuniary condition.

His first venture in this direction was in the butter trade, and he began to earn an honest living through this channel, in which business he was moderately fortunate. But this slow road to wealth was unsatisfying; and having previously known more than one of his friends who had come to possess large means, in a brief space of time, he felt convinced that the secret of their success lay in manipulating the bogus money with which the country over which he travelled was flooded. He looked about him, and from his somewhat prominent position and large acquaintance, he