bunco-steerer, green
goodsman and general rascal. They took to card-sharping, and frequented
some of the best hotels in New York. My brother was an excellent actor
(he might have made an honest name for himself if he had chosen), and
he would take the parts of a young Englishman of title, of a simple lad
from the West, or of a college undergraduate, whichever suited Sparrow
MacCoy's purpose. And then one day he dressed himself as a girl, and
he carried it off so well, and made himself such a valuable decoy, that
it was their favourite game afterwards. They had made it right with
Tammany and with the police, so it seemed as if nothing could ever stop
them, for those were in the days before the Lexow Commission, and if
you only had a pull, you could do pretty nearly everything you wanted.

"And nothing would have stopped them if they had only stuck to cards
and New York, but they must needs come up Rochester way, and forge a
name upon a cheque. It was my brother that did it, though everyone
knew that it was under the influence of Sparrow MacCoy. I bought up
that cheque, and a pretty sum it cost me. Then I went to my brother,
laid it before him on the table, and swore to him that I would
prosecute if he did not clear out of the country. At first he simply
laughed. I could not prosecute, he said, without breaking our mother's
heart, and he knew that I would not do that. I made him understand,
however, that our mother's heart was being broken in any case, and that
I had set firm on the point that I would rather see him in Rochester
gaol than in a New York hotel. So at last he gave in, and he made me a
solemn promise that he would see Sparrow MacCoy no more, that he would
go to Europe, and that he would turn his hand to any honest trade that
I helped him to get. I took him down right away to an old family
friend, Joe Willson, who is an exporter of American watches and clocks,
and I got him to give Edward an agency in London, with a small salary
and a 15 per cent commission on all business. His manner and
appearance were so good that he won the old man over at once, and
within a week he was sent off to London with a case full of samples.

"It seemed to me that this business of the cheque had really given my
brother a fright, and that there was some chance of his settling down
into an honest line of life. My mother had spoken with him, and what
she said had touched him, for she had always been the best of mothers
to