omery looked on the whole transaction as
a very good joke, and Simon was decidedly "in clover," having liberty to
go where he wished, and being maintained at the county's expense.

I judged from the circumstances that McGibony was not to be trusted, and
concluded that authorities who could execute the law so leniently, would
be poor custodians for a prisoner of Maroney's stamp.

On my return trip to Chicago I stopped over at Rome, Ga., where
Maroney's father lived. I discovered that the doctor lived well,
although he was a man of small means. I took a general survey of the
town, and then went directly to Chicago.

_CHAPTER V._

On arriving in Chicago I selected Mr. Green to "shadow" Mrs. Maroney.
Giving him the same full instructions I had given the other operatives,
I despatched him for Montgomery. He arrived there none too soon.

Mrs. Maroney had grown rather commanding in her manners, and was very
arrogant with the servants in the house. She also found great fault with
the proprietor, Mr. Floyd, for not having some necessary repairs in her
room attended to.

One of the lady boarders, the wife of a senator, treated her with marked
coolness; and these various circumstances so worked on her high-strung
temperament that she was thrown into an uncontrollable fit of passion,
during which she broke the windows in her room.

The landlord insisted on her paying for them, but she indignantly
refused to do so. On his pressing the matter, she determined to leave
the house and make a trip to the North.

Porter had become quite intimate with the slave-servants in the
Exchange, and easily managed to get from them considerable information,
without attracting any special attention.

One of the servants, named Tom, was the bootblack of the hotel. He had a
young negro under him as a sort of an apprentice. The duties of the
apprentice, though apparently slight, were in reality arduous, as he had
to supply all the spittle required to moisten the blacking; and for this
purpose placed himself under a course of diet that rendered him as juicy
as possible.

Early in the morning Tom and his assistant would pass from door to door.
Stopping wherever they saw a pair of boots, they would at once proceed
to business. The helper would seize a boot and give a tremendous "hawk,"
which would cause the sleeping inmate of the room to start up in his bed
and rub his eyes. He would then apply the blacking and hand the boot to
Tom, who