greenbacks nor national bank-notes were known at that time, and home
productions, in the financial direction, being very unpopular, there was
a decided preference exhibited for the notes of Eastern banks. And no
sooner would the issues of any particular bank grow very popular in the
neighborhood of Bunkerville than merchants began to carefully examine
every note bearing the name of said bank, lest haply some counterfeiter
had endeavored to assist in supplying the demand. At one particular time
the suspicions had numerous and well-founded grounds; where they came
from nobody knew, but the county was full of them, and full, too, of
wretched people who held the doubtful notes. It was the usual habit of
the Bunkerville merchants to put the occasional counterfeits which they
received into the drawer with their good notes, and pass them when
unconscious of the fact; but at the time referred to the bad notes were
all on the same bank, and it was not easy work to persuade the natives
to accept even the genuine issues. The merchants sent for the sheriff,
and the sheriff questioned hostlers, liquor-sellers, ferry-owners,
tollgate-keepers, and other people in the habit of receiving money; but
the questions were to no effect. These people had all suffered, but at
the hands of respectable citizens, and no worse by one than by another.

Suddenly the sheriff seemed to get some trace of the counterfeiters. An
old negro, who saw money so seldom that he accurately remembered the
history of all the currency in his possession, had received a bad note
from an emigrant in payment for some hams. A fortnight later, he sold
some feathers to a different emigrant, and got a note which neither the
store-keeper or liquor-seller would accept; the negro was sure the wagon
and horses of the second emigrant were the same as those of the first.
Then the sheriff mounted his horse and gave chase. He needed only to ask
the natives along the road leading out of Bunkerville to show him any
money they had received of late, to learn what route the wagon had taken