Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/171

Rh explains why our officers have failed, as completely as they have to date, in obtaining any sort of positive evidence against the American whom, they tell us, they have been following for the past few weeks, thinking him the man who has called himself Manling.

"It is further an indication of how, forming a premature conclusion upon insufficient evidence, the police and public can mislead themselves and persist in following the fancy of their own creation.

"From every indication given, up to this shocking exposure, the man had been presumed to be a person of some apparent breeding, manner, and—one might almost say—refinement.

"So, from every characteristic hitherto shown, we had seemed secure in supposing that the man would do nothing worse than continue to pilfer, in some simple and safe manner, the surplus funds of such as showed him they could afford the loss.

"He had so completely misled even the 149