Page:Memoirs of the United States Secret Service.djvu/105

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
88
UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE.

sorted with him, were buried with him. In this case, Gurney was again arrested (for the fifth or sixth time, in New York,) but soon found himself at liberty, once more, through some gerry-mandering process known only to himself and those who then held him in custody.

For a time he disappeared, and it was thought Bill had gone into retirement, under an alias. But he had long indulged a taste for gambling, and he "fought the tiger" fearfully, for months—when he awoke one day to find himself "dead broke!" He had lost his handsome fortune, at play, and was without funds as well as minus friends. In this strait, he went back to his old trade, but the tide of his luck had turned. He botched whatever he undertook, lost caste, gambled, tried first one thing and then another, but all failed him. He first pushed the famous Newburgh National $10, upon the market, but it was poorly executed, comparatively, and involved all who attempted to shove it in dire trouble. Several of his associates were nabbed by the U. S. Detectives on this work, and two or three were sent to the State Prison, on conviction. Just before he was arrested by Col. Whitley, Bill made a fortunate strike, however, and got in funds, once more. He had laid out the programme for some stupendous operations, and would have been down upon the public shortly, heavily, had his career not been fortunately checked, and this base man removed from the chance farther to impose on and wrong the public, as he had done unblushingly for years and years. He was taken, as we have stated; $3,000 in counterfeit money was found upon his person at the capture, by Col. Whitley and his men; the Chief had thus "a dead sure thing " on this notorious offender; he was taken before the U. S. Commissioner, and in default of being able to procure the amount of bail required ($20,000) he was placed in jail to await trial.