In Gallegher the detective element was abnormally developed. He had
shown this on several occasions, and to excellent purpose.

Once the paper had sent him into a Home for Destitute Orphans which
was believed to be grievously mismanaged, and Gallegher, while playing
the part of a destitute orphan, kept his eyes open to what was going
on around him so faithfully that the story he told of the treatment
meted out to the real orphans was sufficient to rescue the unhappy
little wretches from the individual who had them in charge, and to
have the individual himself sent to jail.

Gallegher's knowledge of the aliases, terms of imprisonment, and
various misdoings of the leading criminals in Philadelphia was almost
as thorough as that of the chief of police himself, and he could tell
to an hour when "Dutchy Mack" was to be let out of prison, and could
identify at a glance "Dick Oxford, confidence man," as "Gentleman Dan,
petty thief."

There were, at this time, only two pieces of news in any of the
papers. The least important of the two was the big fight between the
Champion of the United States and the Would-be Champion, arranged to
take place near Philadelphia; the second was the Burrbank murder,
which was filling space in newspapers all over the world, from New
York to Bombay.

Richard F. Burrbank was one of the most prominent of New York's
railroad lawyers; he was also, as a matter of course, an owner of much
railroad stock, and a very wealthy man. He had been spoken of as a
political possibility for many high offices, and, as the counsel for a