The Expressman and the Detective | Page 4

at
Richmond, Va., for a few days, and was supposed by the man who was
following him, to have passed the time in Charleston.
The company now gave up all hope of recovering the money; but as
Maroney's habits were expensive, and they had lost, somewhat, their
confidence in him, they determined to remove him and place some less
objectionable person in his place.
Maroney's passion for fine horses has already been alluded to. It was
stated about this time that he owned several fast horses; among others,
"Yankee Mary," a horse for which he was said to have paid two
thousand five hundred dollars; but as he had brought seven thousand
five hundred dollars with him when he entered the employ of the
company, this could not be considered a suspicious circumstance.
It having been determined to remove Maroney, the Vice-President of

the company wrote to the Superintendent of the Southern Division of
the steps he wished taken. The Superintendent of the Southern Division
visited Montgomery on the twentieth of January, 1859, but was
anticipated in the matter of carrying out his instructions, by Maroney's
tendering his resignation. The resignation was accepted, but the
superintendent requested him to continue in charge of the office until
his successor should arrive.
This he consented to do.

CHAPTER II.
Previous to Maroney's trip to the North, Mr. Boyer held a consultation
with the Vice-President and General Superintendent of the company.
He freely admitted his inability to fathom the mystery surrounding the
loss of the money, and thought the officers of the company did
Maroney a great injustice in supposing him guilty of the theft. He said
he knew of only one man who could bring out the robbery, and he was
living in Chicago.
Pinkerton was the name of the man he referred to. He had established
an agency in Chicago, and was doing a large business. He (Boyer) had
every confidence in his integrity and ability, which was more than he
could say of the majority of detectives, and recommended the
Vice-President to have him come down and look into the case.
This ended the case for most of the detectives. One by one they had
gone away, and nothing had been developed by them. The
Vice-President, still anxious to see if anything could be done, wrote a
long and full statement of the robbery and sent it to me, with the
request that I would give my opinion on it.
I was much surprised when I received the letter, as I had not the
slightest idea who the Vice-President was, and knew very little about
the Adams Express, as, at that time, they had no office in the West.
I, however, sat down and read it over very carefully, and, on finishing it,

determined to make a point in the case if I possibly could. I reviewed
the whole of the Vice-President's letter, debating every circumstance
connected with the robbery, and finally ended my consideration of the
subject with the firm conviction that the robbery had been committed
either by the agent, Maroney, or by the messenger, and I was rather
inclined to give the blame to Maroney.
The letter was a very long one, but one of which I have always been
proud. Having formed my opinion, I wrote to the Vice-President,
explained to him the ground on which I based my conclusions, and
recommended that they keep Maroney in their employ, and have a strict
watch maintained over his actions.
After sending my letter, I could do nothing until the Vice-President
replied, which I expected he would do in a few days; but I heard
nothing more of the affair for a long time, and had almost entirely
forgotten it, when I received a telegraphic dispatch from him, sent from
Montgomery, and worded about as follows:
"ALLAN PINKERTON: Can you send me a man--half horse and half
alligator? I have got 'bit' once more! When can you send him?"
The dispatch came late Saturday night, and I retired to my private
office to think the matter over. The dispatch gave me no information
from which I could draw any conclusions. No mention was made of
how the robbery was committed, or of the amount stolen. I had not
received any further information of the ten thousand dollar robbery.
How had they settled that? It was hard to decide what kind of a man to
send! I wanted to send the very best, and would gladly go myself, but
did not know whether the robbery was important enough to demand my
personal attention.
I did not know what kind of men the officers of the company were, or
whether they would be willing to reward a person properly for his
exertions in their behalf.
At that time I had no