Author: Frank Pinkerton
Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5695] [Yes,
we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This
file was first posted on August 9, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** Start of the project gutenberg
EBOOK Jim Cummings ***
Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Rose Koven, Charles
Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
OR
With a portrait of the notorious Jim Cummings and
illustrations of scenes connected with the great robbery
By Frank Pinkerton
Vol. I, March 1887.
The Pinkerton Detective Series,
issued monthly,
by subscription, $3.00 per annum.
Chicago
The conspirators—the forged
letter—the plan.
In the rear room of a small frame building, the front
of which was occupied as a coal office, located on
West Lake street, Chicago, three men were seated around
a square pine table. The curtains of the window
were not only drawn inside, but the heavy shutters
were closed on the outside. A blanket was nailed
over the only door of the room, and every thing and
every action showed that great secrecy was a most important
factor of the assembly.
The large argand burner of a student’s lamp
filled the small room with its white, strong light,
The table was covered with railroad time-tables,
maps, bits of paper, on which were written two names
a great number of times, and pens of different makes
and widths of point were scattered amidst the papers,
One man, a large, powerfully-built fellow, deep-chested,
and long-limbed, was occupied in writing, again and
again, the name of “J.B. Barrett.”
He had covered sheet after sheet with the name, looking
first at a letter before him, but was still far from
satisfied. “Damn a man who will make his
‘J’s’ in such a heathenish way.”
“Try it again, Wittrock,” said one of
his companions.
“Curse you,” shouted the man called Wittrock.
“How often must I tell you not to call me that
name. By God, I’ll bore a hole through you
yet, d’ye mind, now.”
“Oh, no harm been done, Cummings; no need of
your flying in such a stew for nothing. We’re
all in the same box here, eh?”
“Well, you be more careful hereafter,”
said “Cummings,” and again he bent to
his laborious task of forging the name of “J.B.
Barrett.”
Nothing was heard for half an hour but the scratching
of the pen, or the muttered curses of Cummings (as
he was called).
