ected
me to keep them fully informed of what was going on.

I started for Montgomery the same day, but was as unfortunate in meeting
with delay as were my detectives. The rivers were filled with floating
ice and I was ice-bound in the Potomac for over thirty hours. I was
obliged to go back to Alexandria, where I took the train and proceeded,
via West Point and Atlanta, to Montgomery. On the journey I amused
myself reading Martin Chuzzlewit, which I took good care to throw away
on the road, as its cuts at slavery made it unpopular in the South. At
the various stations planters got aboard, sometimes conveying their
slaves from point to point, sometimes travelling with their families to
neighboring cities. I did not converse with them, as I was not sure of
my ability to refrain from divulging my abolition sentiments. On my
arrival in Montgomery I took up my quarters at the Exchange and
impressed upon Mr. Floyd the necessity of keeping my presence a secret.
He had no idea that I was after Maroney, but supposed I was merely on a
visit to the South.

I took no notice of Maroney, but managed to see Porter and Roch
privately. They informed me that they had discovered little or nothing.
Maroney kept everything to himself. He and his wife went out
occasionally. He frequented Patterson's, sometimes going into the card
rooms, drove out with a fast horse, and passed many hours in his
counsel's office. This was all Porter knew.

Roch was to do nothing but "spot" the suspected parties and follow any
one of them who might leave town. He was to be a Dutchman, and he acted
the character to perfection. He could be seen sitting outside of his
boarding-house with his pipe in his mouth, and he apparently did nothing
but puff, puff, puff all day long. There was a saloon in town where
lager was sold and he could, occasionally, be found here sipping his
lager; but although apparently a stupid, phlegmatic man, taking no
notice of what was going on around him, he drank in, with his lager,
every word that was said.

I found that Mrs. Maroney was a very smart woman, indeed, and that it
would be necessary to keep a strict watch over her. I therefore informed
the Vice-President that I would send down another detective especially
to shadow her, as she might leave at any moment for the North and take
the forty thousand dollars with her.

I had no objections to her taking the money to the North. On the
contrary, I preferred she should do so, as I