On reaching the post-office, he was introduced to the Agent, whose first object was, to get an admission from him, that he was present when the mail arrived from Boston that day, that he overhauled it alone, and that he had at this time no packages on hand to go by the mail Northward the day following. These points having been ascertained, the subject of the numerous losses on that route was broached, and the fact plainly stated, that they had been traced to that office; which piece of information was received by the post master with the utmost apparent self-possession. Indeed, he seemed exceedingly surprised to hear of the various frauds which I enumerated, and professed entire ignorance that anything of the kind had occurred, assuring me that if such things had been done, my suspicions as to his office were utterly groundless.
"Do you receive much money in the course of your business, Mr. F.?" I asked.
"Have you much on hand now, and is it here, or at the house, or where is it?"
"I don't know that my duty to the Post-office Department compels me to answer such questions--to strangers, anyhow," replied he, with an air of defiance.
"Then," said I, "_my_ duty to the Department will require me to dispense with further interrogatories, and proceed to satisfy myself as to the present state of your finances in some other, and more direct way."
"Well, Squire," said he, turning to Mr. Pierce, "I want to know if you have brought this man here to bully me, on my own premises, and accuse me of doing things that I never thought of, to say nothing of his impertinence in inquiring into my private business affairs. Let him find out what he can about them. I sha'n't help him."
The District-Attorney assured him that all was correct; that his rights should be protected; and that he had better furnish the required information as to his means, and allow us to examine any funds he might have on hand. This, the Attorney suggested, would be the course which a regard for his own interests should lead him to adopt.
After much grumbling, and giving vent to his dissatisfaction by the remark, that "he didn't see why he should be picked out, and treated in this way," he reluctantly complied with my somewhat urgent request to be allowed to look at the money in his possession. Handing me his wallet, he awaited the result of the examination with all the composure he could command. He must have inferred, from what had been said, that it was in my power to identify whatever money he had that was unlawfully obtained, yet with the consciousness that he was thus open to detection, he did not flinch, nor betray but in a small degree, the heart-sinking that a knowledge of his perilous situation could not fail to produce. These were my first thoughts, but I afterwards had occasion to believe that he was not aware of the overwhelming proof against himself which he supplied as he passed his pocket-book into my hands. A hasty examination of its contents revealed unmistakable evidence of his guilt, for on consulting the description of the bills mailed that morning in Boston, to go some twenty miles above this point, every one of them was at once identified!