bearing the word ‘seventy’ on the one check to that part bearing the word ‘thousand’ on the other.  So the composite check read to pay to the holder ‘seventy thousand’ dollars.  As the cutting was made through both checks in exactly the same place, the edges fitted perfectly.  They were glued together and the check readily passed the bank cashier.  The man was caught and made restitution without publicity, but the case gave bankers a shock.  Other somewhat similar cases are known, but none involving such a large amount.

“A famous case was the celebrated Seaver fraud.  He bought a draft for $12 from the Bank of Woodland (Cal.), and, although it was written on chemical ‘safety’ paper and perforated in two places with a check punch, he raised it to $12,000, and it was passed successfully and paid.

“But however successful they may be for a time, it is the fatal hoodoo of this ‘most gentlemanly’ way of making a living without earning it that a forgery is always discovered and the forger generally caught.  That is because the forged check remains in existence and must be paid by some one, and sooner or later there will be an outcry.  The best the raiser can hope for is to escape before the crime is discovered.

“Once the false check is passed and he has the money, his first idea is as to where he shall hide.  Another fatality attaching to his peculiar business is that the same place that he thinks of flying to is the place that suggests itself to the mind of the thief-chaser.  In other words, knowing their man, the man-hunters can guess well where to find him.

“If a forger wants to bury himself, he thinks of South America, because it is easy to get there, and apparently out of the world.  Then, of South America, he probably only thinks of Venezuela, or closer home—­of Guatemala or Panama.  So the South American hunt is simplicity itself, as there are not so many large ports that strange Americans can pass through unnoticed.

“If a forger wants to continue in his crooked business he thinks of London, Paris, Berlin, and maybe Vienna.  We guess at his calibre and whether he wants more money, and know where he probably will go to get it, for the professional crook has an international acquaintance, and he only goes among friends.  So we follow him.

“If a forger is an adventurous spirit and committed the crime on impulse, and we could learn absolutely nothing more about him, we would look in that Mecca of adventurers, South Africa, for him.  In fact, our first business is to learn what kind of a man he is, then shut our eyes and guess which one of a few places he will fly to.  The guess often is so good that our men await him when the steamer lands there.  If not, we don’t forget the sailing vessels.”

CHAPTER X

THUMB-PRINTS NEVER FORGED