Trapping a Detective
by Allan Pinkerton
The “smart boy” of the period is sometimes very smart indeed. There seems to be a period in the life of every boy when he naturally becomes this “smart boy of the period,” and takes to tricks of a brilliant character as naturally as a young miss takes to beaux. Philadelphia had one of these smart boys recently, and he showed, under the pressing necessity of the occasion, an ingenuity and shrewdness which would have much more become the Philadelphia city detective whom he outwitted.
A Brook Street grocer lost fifty dollars from his till, and a lad named Falvey was suspected of the theft. His father very commendably took him to the police-station, and put him in charge of an officer pending an investigation of the matter. After young Falvey was placed in a cell, Detective Swan, of the city force, was ordered to enter and “break him down,” which is the detective parlance for securing a confession from a supposed criminal.
The boy did finally confess to the theft with loud protestations of grief and repentance, and finally told the officer a regular “Tom Sawyer” story of having hidden it in a certain coal-yard along the docks, and promised to go with the detective and show him where he had secreted the bills.