Ten Years Among the Mail Bags. James Holbrook
themselves, than to have lost this chance of confirming their accusations against him."
This turn in the conversation gave me an excellent opportunity of trying the nerves, or the innocence of the post master, without exciting his suspicions in the least; so I remarked.
"The New Haven, Vermont, post master must have been an honest man, or this money letter might never have been seen again; as no one would have thought of looking there for it, and if they had, it wouldn't have been very easy to prove that it ever went there."
Here I glanced at B., but his countenance betrayed no consciousness that my observation was designed to hit him, and with an aspect of unruffled coolness, he proceeded to say.
"That New Haven case reminds me of something very similar, which happened in this office only a day or two ago. A package of letters came here from Boston, which were intended for a town in New York. By the way, Mr. Agent, I wish the next time you are in the Rutland office you would request the mailing clerks to be a little more particular in addressing their wrappers, as our packages, both of letters and papers, frequently go astray, while those for other offices sometimes come here. Surrounded, as I am, by so many prying and fault-finding people, failures caused in this way are likely to be seized upon to make me trouble."
I replied, that I would try to bear his request in mind, being all the time well satisfied that it was a device adopted to turn attention from the mis-sent package, to which he had unguardedly referred, and to prevent further allusion to it, which might awaken suspicion, and even betray guilt. He was indeed treading on dangerous ground. His voluntary admission, that a package similar to my decoy package had been in his hands, and that he had noticed the name of the place to which the letters were directed, was all that was wanting to confirm my belief that they had been purloined, since I already knew that they had not been forwarded from his office.
After our worthy legal friend had exhausted every illustration, and brought to view every fact at his command, corroborating his very high estimate of the post master's character, both personal and official, and had given the "enemies" the extremely low and degraded position which they, as maligners of spotless worth, and conspirators against tried honesty, ought justly to assume—in short, after he had said, if not done, all that even the object of his advocacy could have desired, I proposed an adjournment for dinner, more for the sake of securing in that way an opportunity of telegraphing for the United States Marshal, than for administering to the wants of the inner man. The victim of calumny and myself separated at the door of the Squire's office, agreeing to meet again soon after dinner; and while he was dispatching his meal, I was dispatching a telegraphic message, which ran thus:—
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