The Expressman and the Detective

The Adams Express Company had a monopoly on the express business if the South, and had established agencies at all points with which there was communication by rail, steam, or stage. Adams Express handled all the money sent south for the purchase of produce, or remitted north in payment of merchandise. Among its most trusted employees was a man named Maroney -- upright and reliable -- who one day found himself being delivered a sack of money which was not on the way-bill. When shortly later the money was discovered to have been misdirected -- and now missing -- suspicion fell on Maroney; but his integrity had always been unquestioned. It was determined to say nothing, but to have the movements of Maroney and other suspected parties closely watched . . . Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884), the detective who conducted secret service for General McClellan, was author of "Thirty Years a Detective" and "The Burglar's Fate and the Detectives."