he sends up a certified check for the amount of the loan with
interest, and the bank turns over the securities to the
messenger. In this particular case a messenger arrived with
a certified check, shoved it into the cage, and took away
what was pushed out to him in return--three hundred and sixty
thousand dollars in bonds. The certification turned out to
be a forgery and the securities vanished. I do not know
whether the police were consulted or not. Sometimes in such
cases the banks prefer to resort to more private methods and,
perhaps, save the necessity of making a public admission of
their stupidity. When my friend, the superintendent, was
called in, the officers of the bank were making the wildest
sort of guesses as to the identity of the master mind and
hand which had deceived the cashier. He must, they felt
sure, have made the forgery with a camel's hair brush of
unrivalled fineness.

"A great artist!" said the president.

"The most skilful forger in the world!" opined another.

"We must run down all the celebrated criminals!" announced a
third.

"Great artist-nothing!" remarked the boss, rubbing his thumb
over the certification which blurred at the touch. "He's no
painter! Why, that's a rubber stamp!"

What a shock for those dignified gentlemen! To think that
their cashier had been deceived by a mere, plebeian, common