|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 6
There remained the difficulty of the protective punch marks. There
they were, a star cut out of the check itself, a dollar sign and 25
followed by another star.
She was still admiring her handiwork, giving it here and there a
light little fillip with the brush and comparing this check with
some of those which had been practised on last night, to see whether
she had made any improvement in her technique of forgery, when
Carlton returned with the punch and the blank checks on the Gorham
Bank.
From one of the blank checks he punched out a number of little stars
until there was one which in watermark and scroll work corresponded
precisely with that punched out in the original check.
Constance, whose fingers had long been accustomed to fine work,
fitted in the little star after the $25, then took it out, moistened
the edges ever so lightly with glue on the end of a toothpick, and
pasted it back again. A hot iron completed the work of making the
edges smooth and unless a rather powerful glass had been used no one
could have seen the pasted-in insertion after the $25.
Careful not to deviate the fraction of a hair's breadth from the
alignment Carlton took the punch, added three 0's, and a star after
the 25, making it $25,000. Finally the whole thing was again ironed
to give it the smoothness of an original. Here at last was the
completed work, the first product of their combined skill in crime:
No. 15711. Dec. 27,191--. THE GORHAM NATIONAL BANK
Pay to the order of... The Carlton Realty Co.
Twenty-five Thousand 00/100.........Dollars $25,000.00/100
W. J. REYNOLDS Co., per CHAS. M. BROWN, Treas.
How completely people may change, even within a few hours, was well
illustrated as they stood side by side and regarded their work with
as much pride as if it had been the result of their honest efforts
of years. They were now pen and brush crooks of the first caliber,
had reduced forgery to a fine art and demonstrated what an amateur
might do. For, although they did not know it, nearly half the
fifteen millions or so lost by forgeries every year was the work of
amateurs such as they.
The next problem was presenting the check for collection. Of course
Carlton could not put it through his own bank, unless he wanted to
leave a blazed trail straight to himself. Only a colossal bluff
would do, and in a city where only colossal bluffs succeed it was
not so impossible as might have been first imagined.
Luncheon over, they sauntered casually into a high-class office
building on Broadway where there were offices to rent. The agent was
duly impressed by the couple who talked of their large real estate
dealings. Where he might have been thoroughly suspicious of a man
and might have asked many embarrassing but perfectly proper
questions, he accepted the woman without a murmur. At her suggestion
he even consented to take his new tenants around to the Uptown Bank
and introduce them. They made an excellent impression by a first
cash deposit of the money Carlton had thrown down on the table the
night before. A check for the first month's rent more than mollified
the agent and talk of a big deal that was just being signed up to-
day duly impressed the bank.
The next problem was to get the forged check certified. That, also,
proved a very simple matter. Any one can walk into a bank and get a
check for $25,000 certified, while if he appears, a stranger, before
the window of the paying teller to cash a check for twenty-five
dollars he would almost be thrown out of the bank. Banks will
certify at a glance practically any check that looks right, but they
pass on the responsibility of cashing them. Thus before the close of
banking hours Dunlap was able to deposit in his new bank the check
certified by the Gorham.
Twenty-four hours must elapse before he could draw against the check
which he had deposited. He did not propose to waste that time, so
that the next day found him at Green & Co.'s, feeling much better.
Really he had come prepared now to straighten out the books, knowing
that in a few hours he could make good.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|