Page:Memoirs of the United States Secret Service.djvu/131

 The Bank note paper arrived one day, and then came the burly, staid Directors, with the $5 plate, which they cautiously placed upon the press, and then they stood by to count the sheets, and see that only the ordered and recorded number of impressions came forth, as had been their usual custom.

The boy worked the press, and a very good workman he was, too. On a sudden (as per arrangement previously made between master and apprentice,) the old man called the attention of the two Directors to the other side of the room, ostensibly to examine the last lot of paper the Bank had sent in, which, he said, was inferior in quality. The two men turned away for but a moment or two only to find, on looking at the paper, that it was all right, while the young man deftly took out from beneath his apron an impressible plate, which he slipped in upon the genuine, and out again as swiftly—and thus secured a copy in soft metal, of the original plate—as perfect as the other.

He placed this transfer beneath his apron while the backs of the two Directors were for the moment turned towards him, when they returned to the press, to note that William was getting along regularly, and no questions were asked. They took their $5 plate back to the bank, subsequently, locked it in the big safe, and having thus done their duty as members of the august board of which they were honorable and honest—but innocent members—they slept the sleep of eminent gravity and peace, while Bill Brockway and his master chuckled over the ingenious "little game" they had so sharply played, upon brief notice, at the Bank's expense!

The impression Brockway had thus obtained of the genuine plate was quite perfect in its transfer, and Bill electrotyped it, directly. He had lately learned the details