reporter, whose daily
feuilletons were the only portion of the paper Gallegher deigned to
read.

In Gallegher the detective element was abnormally developed. He had
shown this on several occasions, and to excellent purpose.

Once the paper had sent him into a Home for Destitute Orphans which was
believed to be grievously mismanaged, and Gallegher, while playing the
part of a destitute orphan, kept his eyes open to what was going on
around him so faithfully that the story he told of the treatment meted
out to the real orphans was sufficient to rescue the unhappy little
wretches from the individual who had them in charge, and to have the
individual himself sent to jail.

Gallegher's knowledge of the aliases, terms of imprisonment, and various
misdoings of the leading criminals in Philadelphia was almost as
thorough as that of the chief of police himself, and he could tell to an
hour when "Dutchy Mack" was to be let out of prison, and could identify
at a glance "Dick Oxford, confidence man," as "Gentleman Dan, petty
thief."

There were, at this time, only two pieces of news in any of the papers.
The least important of the two was the big fight between the Champion of
the United States and the Would-be Champion, arranged to take place near
Philadelphia; the second was the Burrbank murder, which was filling
space in newspapers all over the world, from New York to Bombay.

Richard F. Burrbank was one of the most prominent of New York's railroad
lawyers; he was also, as a matter of course, an owner of much railroad
stock, and a very wealthy man. He had been spoken of as a political
possibility for many high offices, and, as the counsel for a great
railroad, was known even further than the great railroad itself had
stretched its system.

At six o'clock one morning he was found by his butler lying at the foot
of the hall stairs with two pistol wounds above his heart. He was quite
dead. His safe, to which only he and his secretary had the keys, was
found open, and $200,000 in bonds, stocks, and money, which had been
placed there only the night before, was found missing. The secretary was
missing also. His name was Stephen S. Hade, and his name and his
description had been telegraphed and cabled to all parts of the world.
There was enough circumstantial evidence to show, beyond any question or
possibility of mistake, that he was the murderer.

It made an enormous amount of talk, and unhappy individuals were being
arrested