Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/648

 prominent, and he has a very mild and quiet look, and he is the last man you would pick out for the scoundrel that he is. Yours very truly,

2em

P. S.—Please attend to it, and oblige.

Shortly after this letter reached its destination, Tecumseh, Mr. Bush received a telegram stating that the man had been found, and asking if they should arrest him. The correspondent had not observed the date of the letter, nor suspected that he was reading a novel; and in a few days the following letter was received:

2em

—

Velina read to me a letter Wednesday evening from you, describing a certain man that was wanted in New York, who had recently left Toledo for this village.

The next morning, after hearing the description, I informed our marshal of the fact, and requested him to keep a lookout for such a man. In the course of half an hour he came to me, saying that he had just seen my man with sandy whiskers, rather tall—would weigh 170 or 180 pounds—wearing specs, and the front finger of the left hand missing; and was very anxious that he should be immediately arrested, as he was then at the livery-stable, for a saddle-horse to ride away. I told him we had better wait and be sure that he was the one we wanted, and also find out if we could whether you wanted him arrested, should he prove to be the right man. I saw the man, and he answered the description so well, even to the finger, that I thought best to telegraph you for instructions. The Marshal, in the mean time, was to keep his eye on him (as he failed to get a horse). Seeing him walk down to dinner with one of our townsmen, the first opportunity he made some inquiries of this townsman, and found that he was not the man—that he was the cousin of this man that took him to dinner, and was brother to a Mrs. Palmer, whom he was visiting—that he lives in South Cleveland, Ohio, and is a lawyer by profession.

That he answered the description, both in size and the loss of the finger, as well as the color of his whiskers, there could be no doubt. Wearing specs we supposed was to hide the defects of that eye you mentioned, and he looked as though his side-whiskers had recently been cut or shaved; but if, as we were told, his home is in Cleveland, and his name is Hick, why of course we were deceived in the matter. And, if his friend has not informed him, he is still ignorant of our suspicions.

Now, as this is my first experience in the detective business, you will pardon the blunder.

Hoping that it has put you to no inconvenience, I remain yours, etc.,

2em

The one striking feature of this coincidence is of course the loss of the forefinger in the left hand.

Both the imagined and the real case possessed this very exceptional peculiarity. This is a subject on which statistics can not be gained; but it is certain that in the whole continent not a small roomful could be found possessing precisely this deformity at the age specified; and