Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison Part 15

The Dean immortalized it in his well-known lines on 'Change Alley:

"There is a gulf where thousands fell, Here all the bold adventurers came, A narrow sound, though deep as h.e.l.l, 'Change Alley is the dreadful name.

"Subscribers here by thousands float And jostle one another down.

Each paddling in his leaky boat, And here they fish for gold and drown.

"Meantime secure on Garraway's cliffs A savage race by s.h.i.+pwreck fed, Lie waiting for the foundered skiffs And strip the bodies of the dead."

d.i.c.kens also makes it the scene of the writing of the famous chops and tomato sauce letter from Mr. Pickwick to Mrs. Bardell.

One can imagine the elation of my friends as they sat around that little table at Garraway's. It was only 10:35. Their income that morning had been $150,000. And many more such days had gone before. All danger was over, wealth was won. They saw themselves back in America, among the Four Hundred, possessors of a fortune, however wrongfully obtained, yet obtained in a way that would leave behind no ruined widows and orphans to linger out the remainder of their blighted lives in poverty and misery. That was a point which added zest to their enjoyment of the prospect.

"I am never to go to the bank again. Come, shake hands on that," said Noyes. And in their excitement and wild delight they shook hands again and again.

But they would have moderated their joy had they known that at the very moment the bank porter, pale and frightened, was rus.h.i.+ng past the room where they sat, carrying the news to the bank that the two-thousand pound bill was a forgery. Instantly all was confusion and excitement in the bank. Telegrams were at once sent to the detective police, and at that moment swarms of them were pouring out of the Bow street and Scotland Yard offices.

That already stories of gigantic frauds, multiplied a thousand fold by rumor, were flying everywhere that every bank in London was victimized.

In ten minutes the story reached the Stock Exchange and a scene of terrific excitement ensued, and, through it all, our three innocents sat on in that dingy old coffee-house, serenely unconscious of the fearful storm that was rising. Still they were safe. Everything was confusion in the bank. The terrified official, frantic with fear, could only describe a tall young man, an American, who said his name was Warren.

Had my three triumphant friends only known what was up they might have sat where they were the day through and drank porter out of the pewter mugs in safety. There were a hundred thousand men in London who would answer any description the bank could have given of Noyes, Mac and George had never appeared in the transaction, and I, the F. A. Warren they were looking for, was living quietly with my young wife in a lovely isle in the tropic sea.

Surely then, these three high-toned financiers still had the game in their own hands. They had nothing to fear. They had wealth. There was no clue to their ident.i.ty and the world was before them--a world which lays her treasures and pleasures at the feet of him who commands wealth.

But that mighty Something had decreed otherwise, and a subtle spirit under whose power they were but purposeless puppets inspired them to commit an act of folly which was to hurl them from the fools' paradise wherein they were reveling down to the pit of despair.

Upon Mac casually remarking that they had still a balance of $75,000 to Warren's credit, Noyes spoke up and said: "Boys, that is too much money to leave John Bull; suppose you make out a check for 5,000. I will run over and get the cash, and it will do for pocket money." And the two others, triumphant in success, became idiots and a.s.sented. Making out a check for 5,000, Noyes started for the bank, check in hand, and entering, instantly found himself with a hot and angry swarm of hornets about him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A NEWGATE SCENE.--DON'T WANT HIS PICTURE TAKEN.]

There were twenty-five detectives in and around the bank. Special messengers had summoned the affrighted directors. The great bank parlor was packed with a host of stockholders and directors, who were questioning the manager and clerks. And excitement rose to fever heat when, with twenty hands holding him, poor Noyes was hustled in among them. They rushed at him like a pack of wolves. Had that been a bank parlor in festive Arizona, they would not have endured the delay incidental to procuring a rope, but would have ended it and him by gunnery at short range. Noyes could not be shaken; his nerve never failed. He said a gentleman had hired him as a clerk, and that was all he knew. He had left him at the Stock Exchange; if they would let him go, he would try and find him and bring him around to the bank. J. Bull is gullible, but not so much so as to swallow that yarn.

So they held tightly to him, and a committee of indignant Britons escorted him to Newgate.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A SENTRY.]

CHAPTER XXIV.

POINTS FOR JUSTICE TO PICK UP.

Mac and George were without, and were stricken with consternation, for a minute's observation of the gathering crowd and the rus.h.i.+ng into the bank of excited people convinced them something unusual was in the wind, and they knew Noyes must be in deadly peril. Mac rushed into the bank in hope to warn or to be of help. Everything there was in confusion.

Un.o.bserved in the excitement, he made his way into the parlor and there saw what made his heart stand still--Noyes surrounded by an angry crowd of officials. With great presence of mind and great nerve he pushed through toward Noyes, who saw him and knew he was there to help if he had a chance to bolt from his captors; but there was no chance. As they were about starting for Newgate, Mac slipped outside and told George what had befallen Noyes, and discussed the possibility of a rescue when on the way to Newgate with him. While they were waiting in the entrance Noyes came out in custody. He saw and recognized them. They joined in the crowd and were within arm's reach of him every rod of the short distance to Newgate, but the crowd was packed so tight that one could hardly move, and a rush for escape was hopeless. Arrived at Newgate, Mac in his desperation was entering with the escort, when George pulled him away, and as they got out of the crowd they heard the newsboys crying: "Great forgery on the Bank of England by an American; 10,000,000 obtained." That afternoon Lionel Rothschild, president of the Board of Directors, called on him at Newgate, and offered him his liberty and 1,000 reward if he would tell all he knew; but Noyes' nerve was not to be shaken. He said a gentleman, an entire stranger, had hired him as a clerk and messenger, and he knew nothing about Mr. Warren nor his business.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "NOYES WAS SURROUNDED BY AN ANGRY CROWD OF OFFICIALS."--Page 236.]

All this time the $150,000 drawn that morning was in a stout bag behind the counter at Garraway's.

Little did the barmaids dream of the treasure that was in the bag at their feet. When Mac went for it, one of the barmaids asked him if he had heard of the great bank robbery. He drove to St James' place, and soon George joined him there.

Here again was enacted the scene we had in Rio; as there, so here, they looked at each other in helpless stupefaction. Why had they not been satisfied? Why had they let Noyes go for a paltry 5,000? Why had they not understood the meaning of the evident excitement in and around the bank?

In Rio there was only a suspicion aroused. Here our companion was a prisoner in Newgate. Scarcely an hour had pa.s.sed since he was free and without a fear had joined in the congratulatory scene at Garraway's. Now ruin was threatened. Upon cool reflection they came to two conclusions.

First, that Noyes not only would never betray them, but that he could be depended upon to keep so close a mouth that no clue could be pumped from him; and next, that he could never be convicted of the forgery.

He might, of course, be subjected to a few weeks of Newgate life. That was very awkward, of course, but it would come all right.

So they resolved for the present to remain in London and await developments.

That night the cable flashed the news of the forgery over the world, dwelling particularly upon the fact that the perpetrator was an American. The next morning the London press overflowed. Every prominent paper gave a leader in the editorial column, and when the weeklies and monthlies came out they followed suit. These editorials make now to us who were on the inside amusing reading. They were full of Philistine talk and amazement, and generally conceded that Noyes was an innocent dupe, and all more or less doubted if his princ.i.p.al, the mysterious Mr.

F. A. Warren, would ever come back to say so.

Day after day went by, and Mac and George hung around London reading the accounts of the affair and of the examination of Noyes before the Lord Mayor.

They had communicated with him through his solicitor, and he sent them word to leave England at once. In the mean time they had been sending away the cash, and so entrenched were they in the belief that by no possible chance could their names become mixed up in the affair that in every instance but two they sent the money or bonds to America in their right names.

In the mean time the bank very wisely sent a cable to their legal agent, Clarence A. Seward, in New York, asking him to set the American detective force on the alert. He was a man of the world and understood quite well what sort of men then ruled at Police Head quarters. So he sent at once for Robert A. Pinkerton and gave him entire charge of the American end of the line. Eventually they unearthed the whole plot, secured the evidence that convicted us and recovered the greater part of the money. The first step taken by the private inquiry men was to have our friends, the detectives at headquarters, led to believe that they had the case entirely in their own hands and to strengthen this Pinkerton had the Bank of England agent in New York go to headquarters every day and pretend to consult with Irving.

After the continental raid, on our return to London we sent Irving $3,000 in greenbacks in a registered letter, but in order to have a hold on our three honest friends at headquarters in case of any possible treachery in the future we put the money in the envelope in the presence of a magistrate and had his clerk register it and make it a part of the court record. The envelope was simply addressed "James Irving, Esq., 300 Mulberry street, New York," and of course the officials in London supposed it a private address.

When we returned from Rio we sent another $3,000, $1,000 each for Irving, Stanley and White, and took the same precautions.

Soon after the floods of money coming to us in London Mac sent $15,000 to Irving in another registered letter, without any precautions, however. Irving & Co. did not know what game we were playing, but were very happy over the dividends past and to come. But when they read the cable dispatches in the press about the bank forgeries, their bliss was ecstatic. Each in fancy saw himself decked out in a magnificent diamond pin and ring, spinning along Harlem lane behind a particularly fast pair in a stylish rig. This was their day vision. At night each saw himself in certain resorts ordering unlimited bottles, or seeing New York by gaslight at the rate of $100 a minute, and the Britishers paying for it all. But the lawyers and the Pinkertons between them played Irving and headquarters for fools and knaves. Day after day one of the lawyers visited Mulberry street, and, being tutored by Pinkerton, gave deceptive points to Irving, who, with his two chums, was completely hood-winked and never suspected the game being played on them.

But as I have got somewhat ahead of events in London I will return there and very briefly narrate what was taking place there. Nearly every day Noyes was brought before the Lord Mayor and officially examined, but, acting under advice of his lawyer, he was strictly non-committal. The detectives and officials were convinced he knew all about it, and tried by both threats and promises to make him talk. Baron Rothschild and others of the directors visited him again, but our friend was deaf, dumb and blind, and they were foiled. In time two Pinkerton detectives had arrived in London, and by a series of lucky hits soon began to let in some light on the business.

In searching Noyes the English police had found his garments were made by a certain London tailor who had several establishments. They brought the foremen and salesmen down to see him, and none could identify him; but the American detectives went over the ground again, and discovered that the London officers had missed one branch store. This was the one Noyes had patronized. They remembered him as a customer who had, when ordering garments, given the name of Bedford. This in itself was a bad point against Noyes, and the New York men wanted very much to make him talk, and had they been permitted to adopt the vigorous American methods they might have succeeded.

A salesman remembered seeing Noyes or Bedford one day walking in Mayfair with a gentleman who really was Mac, of whom he gave a good description, and taking the clerk the detectives started out to make a house-to-house investigation. Now, No. 1 Mayfair, the first house they entered, was the residence of a famous London doctor by the name of Payson Hewett, and Mac had been a patient of his. But Hewett knew absolutely nothing about him save only his name and the address he gave, Westminster Palace Hotel. The detectives were elated, and flew to this hotel, but as Mac had never been a guest they could learn nothing; still they had cause for rejoicing. Here was Noyes giving a fict.i.tious name to a tailor and in company with an elegantly dressed American, who gave a fict.i.tious address to his surgeon. And they were well satisfied that whenever the matter was dug out it would be found that the elegantly dressed stranger, as well as the clerk, had a hand in the business. Payson Hewett stated that Mac said he was a medical graduate from an American university, and said that, no doubt, he spoke the truth, as he had a perfect knowledge of medical subjects.

Here they were getting matters down pretty fine, and cabled all the facts to America with orders to look Mac up, also his friends. This information was the fruit of hard work--many blind trails had been followed that ran nowhere.

In the mean time George and Mac had determined to return to America. The last thing Mac did before leaving his lodgings in St. James' place was to roll up in three rolls $254,000 in United States bonds and send the trunk containing them by express to Major George Mathews, New York. He wrapped them in a nights.h.i.+rt belonging to me, which in some way had got into his baggage. Then he bought a ticket to Paris and sent his baggage over, waiting in London a day or two longer before going himself.

George determined to go to Ireland, and to Ireland he went, and I shall let him in a later chapter tell in his own language the stirring events in Ireland and Scotland that finally ended in his arrest in Edinburgh some weeks later. Mac, before sending his baggage away, had intended to sail from Liverpool by the Java of the Cunard line, and he cabled Irving at Police Headquarters to meet him on the arrival of the steamer. Mac went to Paris, stopping at the Hotel Richmond, Rue du Helder, under his right name, never for a moment thinking he could possibly come under suspicion.

In the mean time the Pinkerton men continued their house-to-house visitation of the fas.h.i.+onable lodging houses to hunt out Mac. This, in huge London, was a t.i.tanic task, but they exhibited a marvelous activity in tracing out clues. In a lucky moment for the Pinkertons, a subordinate inquiring at every number in St. James' place if an American gentleman was lodging or had lodged there was informed by one landlady that Mac had been a lodger, but had left a few days before. As soon as this important report arrived they flew to St. James' place and found the landlady a warm friend of the man they were looking for. The detectives were forced to tell her their business. She was indignant that any one should so wrong Mac, and ordered them out of the house.

They brought the bank solicitors and other important people to see her before she would consent to be questioned; when she did, her information was important indeed. She had seen very little of George, but much of me, though she had never heard my name, but still the detectives knew from her description that the man she described was the F. A. Warren they wanted, and whom to get meant fame and comparative fortune for them.

The rooms had been unoccupied since Mac left and a careful search was made for clues, but nothing was found until she was asked for the waste-paper basket. The basket proved to be a bag, and when turned out some pieces of blotting paper appeared, which, held in front of a mirror, of course would reflect the writing the same as on the written sheet, and on holding the last of the lot to the gla.s.s they were thrilled through when the Pinkertons saw reflected there:

Ten Thousand......................Pounds Sterling.

F. A. WARREN.

which, when compared with a canceled check of mine, then in the possession of the bank, exactly fitted it. Here was a piece of evidence, which, if it could be brought home to Mac, was a chain to bind him fast and sure.