ithout getting caught?"

"It was cleverly done," laughed Cristy, "but like most clever things of
that kind, it was as simple as A. B. C. Jimmy laid his plans carefully
and the chief danger to threaten his success was that he would not be
selected as the messenger between his own office and Ferguson's. He
knew that the chances were he would be watched all the way by a
detective; so he planned to make his substitution before leaving the
building in which the Alderson company has its office.

"He had been keeping a close watch on Podmore for some days, for he did
not trust him and felt sure that he would not hesitate to play false to
Nickleby and Alderson whom he had been cultivating so carefully of
late. Jimmy is shrewd. His patience was rewarded one day by the sight
of Podmore in a leather-goods store around the corner, purchasing two
satchels which were identical in size, shape and color. Stiles had the
clerk lay aside a third satchel which was the mate of the two Podmore
had just bought. When one of the satchels was delivered at the office
from Podmore, Jimmy knew he had guessed right. Just how Podmore was
proposing to change the satchels worried Jimmy quite a bit until he
began to suspect a new arrival in town by the name of Clayton. He
found out that Podmore and this Clayton were meeting in Podmore's room
at different times, but ignoring each other as utter strangers in the
hotel rotunda. Then when Clayton turned up quite casually at All
Saints' Mission--the church Jimmy attends, you know--and began to
ingratiate himself, Stiles thought he saw daylight. It turned out that
he was right, too, in suspecting that Clayton was Podmore's accomplice.

"It fitted in fine with Jimmy's own plan. When he came out of the
office with that tan satchel, which contained the money, his kid
brother--Bertie--was sitting on the bottom step of the stairway on the
same floor, watching the door. As soon as he saw Jimmy come out, the
kid ran upstairs to the next floor, picked up the satchel Jimmy had
bought and in which he had placed some old newspapers, and took the
elevator down. Jimmy got into the same elevator and they transferred
the satchels going down to the street. So, you see, when Stiles walked
out onto the street he was carrying the satchel that had the old
newspapers inside, while young Bertie just stayed in the elevator, went
up a few floors and calmly walked down the back stairs and so on home
where he chucked s