This capture of Bill Gurney, one of the most notoriously shrewd and artful koniackers in the United States, was highly creditable to the officers of the Secret Service. But he was yet to be tried for his crime, and he was possessed of sufficient ready means to employ the best of legal counsel.
"It's a good job for the 'puzzle coves,' " said Bill, hopefully. "But it's a long way yet to conviction." And though this bully coney-man was safe in hand, for the nonce, he cheerfully accepted the forbidding situation which he so unexpectedly found himself placed in, and determinedly set himself to plotting for an early or ultimate release.
The innumerable legal difficulties that attach to the conviction of this class of criminals—especially those among the tribe who possess ample ready means, for example—are entirely misappreciated by the honest community. Occasionally—though but rarely—a learned Judge is met with who indirectly takes the extraordinary ground that "the testimony of Detectives, as a class, should be scrutinized with great caution, inasmuch as from their occupation or calling, and living a life of deceit, their statements on the witness-stand are not entitled to the same weight as that of men taken from the ordinary good classes of society."
Now it is a fact not generally known, perhaps, that the U. S. Detectives have no possible contingent pecuniary or other interest in convicting a counterfeiter. They are paid a stated salary for their services, and are tolerated in the employ of the Government only so long as they do their duty promptly, honorably, and efficiently. There are no special rewards in the system, as at present conducted, and their pay is in no wise contingent on the number of convictions secured. They stand or fall upon their merits and capacity, alone, and attain to promoted rank in this service only in just proportion to their official deserts.
