Entrapped

A Detective's Story

Some twenty years since, I was a poor detective, doing but a small and not very remunerative “business” in the city of L——, in Kentucky. Too much leisure made time hang heavy on my idle hands, and ofttimes had I engaged a team, and taken a drive around the country, sometimes making a circuit of twenty miles.

It was in one of these excursions of mine that I became acquainted with Birdie Reynolds, the daughter of a wealthy retired banker of L——, whose residence was situated within a few miles of the city itself. It was an acquaintance which could not long remain casual, for, two months after our first meeting, I had been so imprudent as to fall irretrievably in love with her; and she—darling girl!—had promised to love me always, despite the frowns and anger of the paternal Reynolds, who soon found a way of preventing out clandestine meetings.

It was a long time before I could muster sufficient courage to enter the grounds of the Reynolds mansion, but, at length, wearied with watching for Birdie at the usual trysting place, I donned my best suit, and summoning all my self-control, pulled the elegant little bell-knob, and was soon ushered into the drawing room, the servant, as requested, conveying my card to the paternal relative of my little pet, my love for whom I was about to avow to that choleric individual. Some oversight on my part caused me to send the wrong card; for, instead of the ordinary “Harry Leeds,” I had delivered my professional card, bearing not only my own name, but my business,… Read More