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Leaf the First

The Silver Pin

by John Williams


I had not been settled long in New York, before I was engaged in a large number of cases, and, fortunately for me, I was successful in by far the greater portion of them. I became very popular, and there was not a single case of importance in which there was any doubt, but what I was consulted in it.

One day I was walking at a rapid pace down Broadway when I suddenly felt someone tap me on the shoulder. I turned quickly round, and who should it prove to be but my old school-fellow, Harry Markham.

“Why, Harry, my boy,” said I, “how are you?”

“Why Jem,” he replied, shaking me cordially by the hand, “I little expected to find you in New York. I thought you were in Stansfield buried among your medical books.”

“I have left physic, and turned detective officer,” I returned, and then I told him in a few words what had passed. “But you, Harry, what are you doing?”

“I’m in luck,” he replied. “I have got a situation as a private secretary to a Mr. Percival, a gentleman of wealth, living near Washington. He gives me a thousand dollars a year, and my board and lodging. I am to take charge of his money matters. I think it is rather an easy… Read More