Page:Memoirs of the United States Secret Service.djvu/71

54 "Detective Felker and his crew, I knew, were inclined to deceive me. I was really acting 'on the square' with them. They couldn't hold me, but I was desirous to get out of the line of life I had so long followed, if I could. I found that they did not incline to help me out, though they were profuse in promises, which they never fulfilled. They didn't want me to quit the coney business. They had a soft thing of it," continued McCartney. "They were on their make, continually. They put up jobs on me, and cheated me with promises. They said if there were no counterfeiters, there would be no work for them to detect. They made capital out of it, and didn't care to have me relinquish the traffic, any how. Felker more than once told me this, frankly. But I had promised my wife I would quit it, and I was ready to do so. They wouldn't let me." All this assertion on Mac's part must be taken for what it is worth, however. McCartney got out of the hands of the then Detectives, nevertheless, when he found they deceived him (as he avers) and at last his case was taken in hand by the new Chief, Col. Whitley. He was tracked, and watched, and hunted down, at length. Detectives Applegate, Lonergan and Eagan were put upon his trail, and one day in the fall of 1870, McCartney proceeded to Portland, Ky., where he intended to remain quiet for a time, with a view to the future.

He went about the neighborhood and selected an old house occupied by a man to whom he paid a bonus to give him possession, and he moved into it. The occupant suspected the stranger, and reported the fact to the Chief of Police at Louisville. The local officers looked into the case, and shortly afterwards. Detective Bly found a quantity of counterfeiter's tools there, a printing press, rolling-machine, and full sets of plates for manufacturing bogus