was that Dragon in disguise, to show him
London, that he could not help reverting to
that point in his narrative; and gently repeating,
with the Butcher snigger, " ' Oh, dear!'
I says, ' is that where they hang the men?
Oh, Lor!' ' That!' says they. ' What a simple
cove he is! '"

It being now late, and the party very
modest in their fear of being too diffuse,
there were some tokens of separation; when
Serjeant Dornton, the soldierly-looking man,
said, looking round him with a smile:

"Before we break up, Sir, perhaps you
might have some amusement in hearing of
the Adventures of a Carpet Bag. They are
very short; and, I think, curious."

We welcomed the Carpet Bag, as cordially
as Mr. Shepherdson welcomed the false
Butcher at the Setting Moon, Serjeant Dornton
proceeded:

"In 1847, I was dispatched to Chatham, in
search of one Mesheck, a Jew. He had been
carrying on, pretty heavily, in the bill-stealing
way, getting acceptances from young men of
good connexions (in the army chiefly), on
pretence of discount, and bolting with the
same.

"Mesheck was off, before I got to Chatham.
All I could learn about him was, that he had
gone, probably to London, and had with him
—a Carpet Bag.

"I came back to town, by the last train
from Blackwall, and made inquiries concerning
a Jew passenger with—a Carpet Bag.

"The office was shut up, it being the last
train. There were only two or three porters
left. Looking after a Jew with a Carpet Bag, on
the Blackwall Railway, which was then the
high road to a great Military Depôt, was
worse than looking after a needle in a hay-
rick. But it happened that one of these porters
had carried, for a certain Jew, to a certain
public-house, a certain—Carpet Bag.

"I went to the public-house, but the Jew
had only left his luggage there for a few hours,
and had called for it in a cab, and taken it
away. I put such questions there, and to the
porter, as I thought prudent, and got at this
description of—the Carpet Bag.

"It was a bag which had, on one side of it,
worked in worsted, a green parrot on a stand.
A green parrot on a stand was the means by
which to identify that—Carpet Bag.

"I traced Mesheck, by means of this green
parrot on a stand, to Cheltenham, to Birmingham,
to Liverpool, to the Atlantic Ocean. At
Liverpool he was too many for me. He had
gone to the United States, and I gave up all
thoughts of Mesheck, and likewise of his—
Carpet Bag.

"Many months afterwards—near a year
afterwards—there was a Bank in Ireland
robbed of seven thousand pounds, by a person
of the name of Doctor Dundey, who escaped to
America; from which country some of the
stolen notes came home. He was supposed to
have bought a farm in New Jersey. Under
proper management, that estate could be seized
and sold, for the benefit of the parties he had
defrauded. I was sent off to America for this
purpose.

"I landed at Boston. I went on to New
York. I found that he had lately changed
New York paper-money for New Jersey paper-money,
and had banked cash in New Brunswick.
To take this Doctor Dundey, it was
necessary to entrap him into the State of New
York, which required a deal of artifice and
trouble. At one time, he couldn't be drawn
into an appointment. At another time, he
appointed to come to meet me, and a New York
officer, on a pretext I made; and then his
children had the measles. At last, he came,
per steamboat, and I took him, and lodged
him in a New York Prison called the Tombs;
which I dare say you know, Sir?"

Editorial acknowledgment to that effect.

"I went to the Tombs, on the morning after
his capture, to attend the examination before
the magistrate. I was passing through the
magistrate's private room, when, happentng.to
look round me to take notice of the place, as
we generally have a habit of doing, I clapped
my eyes, in one corner, on a—Carpet Bag.

"What did I see upon that Carpet Bag, if
you'll believe me, but a green parrot on a
stand, as large as life!

"' That Carpet Bag, with the representation
of a green parrot on a stand,' said I, 'belongs
to an English Jew, named Aaron Mesheck,
and to no other man, alive or dead! '

"I give you my word the New York Police
officers were doubled up with surprise.

"' How do you ever come to know that? '
said they.

"' I think I ought to know that green
parrot by this time,' said I; 'for I have had
as pretty a dance after that bird, at home, as
ever I had, in all my life! '"

"And was it Mesheck's? " we submissively
inquired.

"Was it, Sir? Of course it was! He was
in custody for another offence, in that very
identical Tombs, at that very identical time.
And, more than that! Some memoranda,
relating to the fraud for which I had vainly
endeavoured to take him, were found to be, at
that moment, lying in that very same in-
dividual—Carpet Bag!"

Such are the curious coincidences and such
is the peculiar ability, always sharpening and
being improved by practice, and always
adapting itself to every variety of circumstances,
and opposing itself to every new
device that perverted ingenuity can invent,
for which this important social branch of the
public service is remarkable! For ever on
the watch, with their wits stretched to the
utmost, these officers have, from day to day
and year to year, to set themselves against
every novelty of trickery and dexterity that
the combined imaginations of all the lawless