In our larger cities, and indeed throughout the country, there are thousands of persons engaged in the transaction of business, who if called upon would testify that in the course of their employment of the mails, involving in the aggregate the collection and disbursement of millions of dollars, no part of their correspondence, valuable or otherwise, had failed or had ever been delayed through any fault of the Post-Office Department.

Such, up to the year 1849, had been the experience—an experience extending through many years—of a firm in Northern New York, extensively engaged in manufacturing and real estate operations, which required the frequent transmission of heavy remittances between their place of business and New York City. For a long time they confined themselves to the use of drafts, checks, and other representatives of money, but as everything went on smoothly for years, they finally remitted money itself, in the shape of bank-notes, whenever convenience required, without bestowing a thought upon the insecurity or danger of such a course; and for a time the prompt acknowledgment of the receipt of the various sums thus sent strengthened their confidence in the safety of the mails, and the fidelity of their management.

Therefore the rifling of one money letter directed by them to New York caused but little alarm; but when this was followed in rapid succession by the loss of the contents of a second, third, and even a fourth, they began to think that there was "something rotten in the state of"—New York, and accordingly called upon the Post-Office Department for aid in ascertaining the locality, and detecting the perpetrator of these robberies.

The losses could not be attributed to misdirection, or any other of the long catalogue of causes not of a criminal nature, though occasioning much alarm and inconvenience. For in the present case the rifled letters had reached the parties addressed. They had been opened, robbed, and resealed.

The route over which the letters passed was a long one—some four hundred miles—and the first look at the case seemed almost to forbid the hope of success in its investigation; for it appeared probable that the robber might defy detection as effectually as "a needle in a hay-mow;" and a belief of this kind no doubt encouraged him in his course. There was, however, another fact in connection with the matter, as will presently be seen, of which he was ignorant, which might have caused him at least to hesitate in pursuing his designs, had he known it, for it very much curtailed the limits within which investigation was necessary.

The course of the mail on this route was, first to Ogdensburg, some sixty miles, by stage, the mail being overhauled at each of the intermediate offices, eight or ten in number. At Ogdensburg, all matter for New York was put into a "through bag," which was furnished with a brass lock, and not to be opened until its arrival in New York.

It may be well here to state that two kinds of locks are used in the mail service; the iron lock for short distances and upon routes where the mails are frequently overhauled, a key to which is in the possession of all the post masters and "Route Agents;" and the brass lock, used for greater safety only between large places and on important routes; the intermediate offices being supplied with their mail matter without the necessity of opening the through bag. Consequently the brass key is in the hands of comparatively few post masters, (only those who are connected with the offices where the through bags are opened,) and of none of the Route Agents.

The reader will see from this statement, and others hereafter to be made, that the robberies were probably committed somewhere between the first-mentioned place and Ogdensburg, and that thus it would be necessary to pursue the investigation only on the latter route, some sixty miles as has already been mentioned.

The seals of the rifled letters were important witnesses in this case. In the resealing, uncommonly large wafers of a peculiar shade had been used, as well as a particular kind of stamp, which circumstances satisfactorily proved that all the robberies were the handi-work of one person, and probably at a single locality. The letters had in each instance been detained somewhere one day longer than the time usually required for their passage over the route.

Now there are certain features or symptoms, so to speak, in cases of mail depredations which go far to assist one accustomed to their investigation in determining whether they have occurred in large or small post-offices, and to distinguish with tolerable accuracy, between city and country embezzlements. A city depredator seldom if ever confines his operations to letters passing over a particular route. Indeed he could scarcely do so were he to attempt it, for in the usual division of labor, a dozen letters arriving on separate days would be likely to be taken charge of by as many different hands, and if letters were passing each way on the same route, it would be still more difficult for the same person to purloin from both, as the receiving and forwarding departments are generally if not always entirely distinct.

Neither is it a city symptom to reseal and replace a letter after it has been rifled, for the reason, among others, that the depredator is not willing, after having succeeded in purloining it, to incur the additional risk of smuggling it back again. While in country or village post-offices, the thefts must in most cases be confined to one route, and there is more leisure and better opportunity for the resealing and returning process.

For similar reasons, the loss or robbery of a number of letters addressed to the same party or business firm, although arriving by different routes, would not necessarily place a city post-office clerk under suspicion, since he could scarcely have a motive for such a selection among the thousands of valuable letters coming into his custody. On the contrary, if he were disposed to be dishonest, he would be more likely to take A.'s letter to-day, B.'s to-morrow, and C.'s the next day. Neither would it, in the case just supposed, be probable that there was a rogue on each of the different routes. The theory which experience and observation have established, would be that the repeated embezzlements had been carried on by some dishonest messenger outside the office who had in his power only the correspondence with which he had been intrusted. At all events, such a conclusion would be fully justified by the very frequent discoveries of similar delinquencies in our cities and large towns.

The peculiar features in the present case showed quite plainly that neither the New York nor Ogdensburg offices were implicated, and that the depredations had occurred somewhere between the latter and the mailing office.

An important question now arose, namely, what postmaster between these points used wafers similar to those upon the rifled letters. Having entire confidence in the Ogdensburg post master, I requested him to write to each of the post masters on the suspected route, asking for information on indifferent subjects and requiring replies. One was requested to send a copy of the post-bill from his office to Ogdensburg of a certain date. Another was inquired of to know whether a letter remained in his office addressed to Timothy Saunders; another to know whether there was once a clerk in his office by the name of Philip Barton, and if so, where he was at present residing. In this way letters were obtained from all these post masters in the course of a few days, and the mode of sealing was in each case particularly examined. Upon one of these letters the large wafer was found! There was not only the kind of wafer, but the stamp identical with that used upon the rifled letters.

For a few days after this, the exterior of all the letters received at Ogdensburg, and which passed through the suspected office, were carefully examined to see if they had been disturbed. This examination showed plainly that a number had been opened, and resealed either with the large wafer, or by the use of the original seals, which of course were mutilated.

Careful inquiry of some who knew the suspected post master, showed that he was a merchant in good standing, against whom no charge of dishonesty had ever been preferred.

The next thing to be done was to visit a point beyond him, in order to pass decoy letters through his hands, on their way to the Ogdensburg office.

Accompanied by a citizen of Ogdensburg, whose services I had secured as a guide, I started in a private conveyance, and when we had arrived within ten miles of the office of the big wafers, we turned into a by-road so as to avoid passing through the village in which it was situated. At a short distance from the village upon the road aforesaid, we saw a sleigh approaching, (it was the month of December, and capital sleighing,) and as it drew near, my companion remarked that he believed its occupant was Mr. Willis, the very person we were endeavoring to avoid! My friend knew Mr. W. by sight, but was not sure that Mr. W. knew him.

We concealed our faces as well as we could under the circumstances, and passed at as rapid a rate as was compatible with the muscular powers of our Rosinante. It afterwards appeared that Willis was out on a collecting tour that day, and that neither of us were known to him, nor had he the least suspicion of our business.

The mail which had so frequently suffered the loss of its valuable contents, passed over the route in the night, leaving Fort Covington at about ten P. M. and reaching the suspected office a little before midnight.

An interview with the victim of the former losses, resulted in his preparing a letter containing one hundred dollars in bank-notes, addressed to the same New York correspondent to whom the other letters had been sent. A full account of the bills was taken, and the letter sealed with a small wafer. A post-bill was prepared by the post master at Fort Covington, and the letter enclosed in a wrapper directed on the outside to New York City.

For the first time it occurred to me that the string to be put upon the decoy package, might be made to play an important part in supplying evidence of crime. If the letter should be robbed, and then destroyed together with the wrapper, and the money secreted, no proof of the deed would remain excepting the circumstance that the package went into that office and never came out. But the most cunning depredator would never think of destroying a thing so insignificant as a string. So I concluded to make it available in the experiment about to be tried. Among my notes of this case, I find the following description—"A white cotton string, twelve inches long; a knot exactly in the middle, another an inch from one end, and another two inches from the other end,—the last-mentioned end dipped in ink."

The package, tied up with this tell-tale string, was then thrown into the bag, and we soon set out on our return in the mail conveyance. The road lay for the most part through thick swampy woods, upon whose grim silence the cheerful sound of our sleigh-bells made but little impression. Nor did we possess any other means for dispelling the gloom around us than the red glow of a couple of cigars, with which we resisted the encroachments of Jack Frost, so far as our noses were concerned. These (the cigars, not the noses) must have appeared like feeble imitations of a pair of coach lamps.

We had passed over about half the distance through the woods, when an incident occurred serving at least to break the monotony of our ride. A dark object by the side of the road, made conspicuous by the snow upon the ground, attracted our attention and that of our horses, who attempted to halt, and required a smart application of the lash to induce them to resume their pace. A moment after we could distinguish the forms of two persons stepping nearer to the middle of the road as we approached them. Not a word was said by either of us, as we were too much engaged in speculating on the character of the unexpected apparitions, to indulge in conversation; but the driver had evidently made up his mind to forestall any nefarious designs which they might entertain. Requesting me to "raise up a little," he drew from the sleigh-box an instrument effectual to lay such phantoms, to wit, a revolver. There was, however, no occasion for its use, for the personages before us turned out to be two French Canadians too far gone in intoxication to be very formidable antagonists, had they entertained hostile intentions, which they were far from doing, as their energies were entirely devoted to maintaining a perpendicular position, and keeping somewhere within the bounds of the road. Their erratic course rendered it somewhat difficult to avoid running over them, but we finally left them behind, muttering "sacre" and staggering about in a very social manner.

When we had arrived at the village and were within a quarter of a mile of the office, I alighted from the sleigh and walked on, leaving it to overtake me, my object in this being to keep out of sight of the post master, whose suspicions might possibly be excited by seeing a stranger in the sleigh with the mail carrier, although the mail carriage occasionally conveyed passengers. Perhaps this was an excess of caution on my part. At any rate, it did no harm, and I prefer in all such cases to give a wide berth to possibilities.

Once more on our way, my mind was chiefly occupied with conjectures as to the result of that night's experiment, and in determining what steps were to be taken in case the money package had been abstracted. The post master himself had changed the mails on this occasion, the driver in the mean time having gone over to the hotel at my request, in order to afford the former a good opportunity for committing the depredation if he entertained any such design.

The distance to the next post-office on this route was about six miles, and nothing further could be ascertained respecting the condition of the package, till our arrival there. An excellent account had been given me of the post master at this place, and his assistant. The former boarded at the hotel nearly opposite the post-office, which was kept in his store. As he was crossing the street with the mail bag on his way to the office, I overtook him, made myself known to him, and under an injunction of secrecy, disclosed to him the object of my visit at such an unseasonable hour. I furthermore expressed a desire to examine the packages contained in the pouch.

"It may all be right," said he, "but I hardly think I ought to allow an entire stranger, especially at this hour of the night, to know anything of the contents of the mails."

I was glad to find in this gentleman such a degree of caution and faithfulness to his public trust, and I was disposed to test it a little further.

"Well, sir," I said, "if you are to obstruct an Agent of the Department in this way, while in the discharge of his duties, you will be reported at head quarters for removal."

"Can't help that," replied he, "I intend to go pretty straight while I am here, and if the Post Master General himself were to appear here and want to overhaul my mails, he couldn't touch them, unless he satisfied me that he was the very man. That's just as the case stands."

"Very well," I remarked, "the driver knows who I am, and if he says it's all right, I suppose that will do."

"Not a bit of it," was the decided answer; "he may be deceived as well as any one else."

I now drew from my pocket the official evidence of my authority, bearing the signature of the Post Master General, and the seal of the Post Office Department. After inspecting this document rather closely, the cautious officer observed that there was no mistaking the signature of N. K. Hall, and that he believed he must "give in."

I expressed my gratification at the fidelity which he had displayed, and in a moment more the contents of the bag were spread upon the counter. A careful search, several times repeated, failed to discover the decoy package. Its absence, of course, showed that it must have been stopped at the office which I had intended to test.

I informed the driver that I could go no further with him that night, and procuring another conveyance, I returned to look after the stolen letter, and its dishonest possessor. Directly opposite the post-office was the village tavern, and there I arrived about daylight, intending from that position to watch the post master, and introduce myself as soon as he entered his store.

After watching about an hour, I observed some one removing the outside shutters of the store windows, and was informed by the landlord that it was the proprietor and post master.

I deemed it important not to be seen by him until I had entered the store, when it would be too late to destroy or secrete anything that he might have taken from the mail the night previous. In this I was successful. When I opened the store door, he was stooping down near the stove, engaged in preparing "kindlings" for making his fire. I came upon him so suddenly that he started to his feet almost with a spring, and looked rather more flurried than one would naturally be who expected to see no more formidable a personage than some early customer for a codfish or a quart of molasses.

"Thus Conscience does make cowards of us all," thought I, as I observed his futile attempts to recover his self-possession. After returning my salutation, he resumed the occupation which I had interrupted, that of splitting up a knotty piece of pine; but in his embarrassment he endeavored in vain to strike twice in the same place, hitting the floor quite as often as the stick which he was attempting to dismember.

Several common-place questions and answers passed between us while he was thus engaged. With the view of giving a temporary relief to his nerves, and of ascertaining what part of the store was appropriated to the post-office, (for there was nothing of the kind in sight,) I inquired,—

"Is there a letter here for Albert G. Foster, Jr.?"

"No, there is no letter in the office for any one of that name," replied he, apparently much relieved by the inquiry.

"You must have a paper for me," said I, "will you look?" He dropped his hatchet, and I followed him into a counting-room at the further end of the store, which was devoted to the postal department. The transient newspapers were examined, but not a paper could be found for Albert G. or any other Foster.

By this time the gentleman had nearly recovered from the effects of my first sudden appearance, but the calm was destined to be only of short duration.

"Mr. Willis, you have been talking to an Agent of the Post-Office Department, who has been sent on here for the purpose of detecting you in your frequent depredations upon the mails passing through your office, particularly the letters of Messrs. A. & Co. And last night you repeated the experiment once too often. Now I want the letter that you then robbed, and the hundred dollars which you found in it. It is a shameful thing for any one, much more for a man of your standing and connections, to convert, as you have done, a position of public trust and responsibility into a sort of place of ambush, where you lie in wait for the letters of your unsuspecting neighbors, and other members of the community, and thus abuse the confidence reposed in you. It is worse than highway robbery."

He gazed intently at me for a few moments with a look designed to be one of surprise and injured innocence. The attempt was a miserable failure, however. Conscience would lend her aid to no such cloaking of guilt, but proclaimed it through the wavering of his eye, the forced expression of his countenance, and the general agitation which he vainly attempted to conceal.

"That is plain talk, sir, very plain talk," said he; "and I think you cannot know much about me or my standing in society, to come here and accuse me in the way you have done."

"Your standing," replied I, "can have but little to do with last night's transactions. I must have the hundred dollars, even if you have destroyed the letter; and it is also important that I should recover what you have taken from the mails on previous occasions."

"You seem to be sure that you are safe in making these charges, sir," said he; "but all you have yet stated is nothing but assertion without any proof."

Just then the front door of the store opened, and a pleasant voice was heard, "Breakfast is ready, father." A sweet little child stood in the door-way, and her innocent, careless face, contrasted strikingly with the anxiety which displayed itself in the features of her guilty father. Would that her voice could have called him away from the course of villany and dishonor which he had taken!

As her father did not at once reply to her, she came skipping up to him, and as she caught hold of his hands and playfully attempted to draw him along, he looked at her and then at me, with an expression that said as plainly as words could say it,—"Have you the heart to come between us, and destroy the happiness of my innocent family?"

I felt the force of the appeal, but was impressed still more strongly with detestation of the conduct of a man who could deliberately risk involving the members of his domestic circle in misery and disgrace for the sake of enriching himself at the expense of those who had confided in his integrity.

"I can't go now, my dear," said he, withdrawing his hands from hers, "I am very busy. Run along and tell mother not to wait for me."

So away tripped little Innocence, joyfully humming a simple air, and leaving us to deal with the grim question before us.

I now commenced a search among some waste papers scattered upon the floor and one of the tables, for the wrapper in which the decoy letter had been enclosed, but I could find it nowhere. I however continued the search, hoping to find the string, if nothing else; and my perseverance was rewarded by the discovery of the package at the back part of a drawer in a desk. The package appeared to be in a perfect state, except that the string was missing. Holding it up, I inquired of the post master, "What is this package doing here?"

"It must have been thrown out by mistake in overhauling the mail last night," replied he.

I removed the wrapper, and immediately found a full confirmation of my previous assertions, for the letter itself had been broken open, and the large wafer substituted for the original seal. In fact it had been served exactly like its rifled predecessors, and was now waiting to go forward to New York by the next mail. I also observed a quantity of the large wafers lying upon the desk, a few of which I secured for the purpose of comparison. The evidence of the string now became of little importance, but I wished to find it if possible, and after a few moments' search, I discovered it lying on the floor behind the counter of the store.

The probability is that after the mail had passed that night, he took the stolen letter to the store, and there opened it.

Against such overwhelming proof as this, it was worse than useless to contend. So thought the unfortunate post master, whose tone now changed considerably. He refunded on the spot the proceeds of the last night's robbery, and proposed to make over a portion of the goods in his store as security for the restitution of the amount previously purloined, if by such a step he could save himself and his young family (consisting of a wife and the little girl already referred to,) from the crushing effects of public exposure.

But this tender regard for the happiness and honor of his family came too late. Such considerations, if others are insufficient, ought to restrain one from the commission of crimes; and it has always seemed to me that when a man in the full possession of his faculties can thus compromise the comfort and peace of mind of his innocent family, he deserves little sympathy or pity from any quarter, however sincerely he may regret his folly.

Willis was arrested by a local officer, and taken before a Justice of the Peace in that neighborhood, who, notwithstanding the efforts made to impress upon him the importance of holding the accused for trial, fixed the bail at a few hundred dollars, which sum was readily furnished by responsible parties.

As several weeks were to elapse before the session of the Court, it was my intention to re-arrest him under a United States warrant, as soon as one could be obtained, but during the night he made over a portion of his property to his sureties, and hastily filling a few trunks with articles of clothing and other personal property, he decamped with his family to Canada, leaving behind a deserted home and a disgraced name.

As soon as the crimes of Willis became known in the town, universal sympathy for the wife of the criminal was felt and manifested. She was a refined and accomplished lady, connected with a highly-respectable family in a neighboring county, and had endeared herself to all who knew her, by her kindness and other excellent qualities. Like a true woman, she remained constantly at the side of her husband, after his arrest; overlooking all his offences in her devoted affection, and palliating them to others as far as she could, on the ground of pecuniary embarrassments.

Some weeks elapsed before a clue was obtained to his whereabouts. The deputy Marshal, to whom this business was intrusted, entered upon the search with great energy, and finally succeeded in arresting him, and conveyed him to Utica, New York, where he was examined before the United States Commissioner, who held him to bail in a large amount, for trial before the United States District Court. Being unable to obtain this heavy bail, he was sent to jail a few miles from Utica, to await his trial. His wife, on his second arrest, returned to her father's house. It was soon after this that she wrote him the following letter, which was left in the jailor's possession:

Not far from two weeks after the committal of Willis to jail. Mrs. Willis called one day late in the afternoon, and requested permission of the jailor to spend the night with her husband. This officer was a kind-hearted old gentleman, and the lady-like deportment of the applicant, whom he had seen on former occasions, had won his entire confidence. He made no objection, and his native gallantry, and sympathy for the lady, prevented a very thorough investigation of the contents of a large basket that she brought with her, which presented to his eye nothing but a goodly array of such delicacies as are not usually included in a prison bill-of-fare. So she was ushered into her husband's place of confinement, basket and all.

The jailor retired to rest that night with the happy consciousness of having done at least one kind act during the day, and slept soundly,—perhaps more soundly than usual—till morning.

When going his accustomed rounds, he noticed sundry shavings and chips of a decidedly new and fresh appearance on the floor outside of Willis's door. He further noticed that the door was partly open, whereupon he hastily entered the room in no small perturbation of mind. Nor was his disturbance diminished when he found that there was but one occupant of the bed, and that, the fair lady whom he had admitted the night before! She was apparently fast asleep, and although the spectacle was one of a picturesque description,

the old gentleman would have derived much more satisfaction from a sight of her liege lord. He looked in all directions round the room, with the vague idea that his prisoner might start up from behind a chair or table; but no such phenomenon occurred, and the conclusion forced itself upon him that he had been made the victim of misplaced confidence; in other words, that Willis had escaped by the aid of his devoted wife and her treacherous basket. An auger, concealed in its depths, had been smuggled in, and used in boring off the door-hinges, and now lay on the floor.

"Mrs. Willis," cried the now indignant jailor, "Mrs. Willis. I say!" But the slumberer stirred not, and he repeated the call in louder tones,—"Mrs. Willis, where's your husband?"

Rising up on one elbow, and looking about the room, apparently much confused, she replied.

"Where's my husband? have you taken him away without letting me know it?"

She steadily refused to give any information concerning the time or mode of his escape, and was equally careful not to deny that she furnished the means for securing his exit. She was therefore arrested and taken before an United States Commissioner, charged with aiding and abetting the escape of a prisoner; but such was the public sympathy in her behalf, that she was discharged from custody, and no doubt, soon joined her husband, who had proved himself so utterly unworthy of such an affectionate, devoted, and heroic companion.

Not long after this escape, a suit was brought in one of the lower courts, against a brother of Willis, to recover the value of a horse killed by hard driving on the night of Willis's disappearance. It was more than surmised that the two circumstances were in some way connected.