became an easy mark for the chemists who had gone wrong.

Finally, and until recently, the banking world thought that it had
struck the absolute safeguard by using a machine to stamp on the check
the exact amount for which it was drawn, the machine perforating the
paper as it stamped it. Certainly it does seem that when the paper is
cut right out of the check, leaving nothing but holes, no change is
humanly possible. But the completeness of this supposed safeguard has
offered a tempting field for the check-raiser.

A special detective in the employ of the American Bankers'
Association, who has spent half the years of his mature life in
running down forgers and check-raisers, said that it was "too easy" to
raise checks, and that a good many more men than try it now would do
it were it not for the well-known relentlessness of the association in
running down offenders against any single one of its constituent
members.

"Write me a check for any sum you want," said the sleuth, "and I'll
show you."

A check for $200 was written and passed over to him. In less than two
minutes, without an erasure of any kind, the check called for $500,
and the work was done so well even in that short time that the writer
would have been tempted to believe that he had made an error and
really drawn the check for that amount had he not been sure to the
contrary.

"That kind of raising is easy," said the expert. "You see it demands
no interlining or extending of words. The check-raiser simply knows