to let Martin go. I had a further purpose,
I wanted to get the documents Martin had spoken of as being at his
hotel.

Kraft and I dined at the old Lovejoy Hotel (then at the corner of
Beekman Street and Park Row) and afterwards went up to the Gramercy Park
Hotel, then quite a fashionable hostelry. We waited until Martin came
out of the dining-room. He was in his dinner suit, and was quite a dude
for such a raw-boned Southerner; he was surprised to see me again. I
told him I wanted some further talk. I asked if we could not go to his
room. After starting for up stairs I introduced my friend.

When in his room I informed him that my sole object was to obtain the
information needed by the Government. Any man's face would be a study
under such circumstances. Martin was game; his first question was:
"Well, what is your name?" "Smith," I replied. "Oh, I mean your right
name," he said. (There are some advantages in the name Smith, I really
needed no alias.)

Martin thought a treat was "on him," and he paid it. I then invited him
to show me the documents he had described when down town. I took
possession of all. They gave a very good history of his doings on the
Mississippi river, and his connection with the Confederate Treasury
Department.

In answer to his question, I told him that I did not know what the
government would do with him, but I was sure his proposed claim against
the government would not be collectible, and perhaps he would be
detained until the end of the war, to prevent a recurrence.

Pending my first call on Martin, I visited General Dix, commanding the
Department of the East. He declined to endorse my order to make the
arrest of Martin, unless I explained fully the case. Rather than do so,
just at that time, I concluded to disregard courtesy and take my man
away without his endorsement, which I did.

The "Gold Room" which was then more important than the Stock Exchange,
was in Twenty-fourth Street, back of the Fifth Avenue Hotel; it was open
evenings. I permitted Martin to send there for money, and to advise his
friends that he would be away for a few days.

During the evening Mr. Martin said to me, "Last evening, when I was
expecting you, waiting for you, I lay here reading Colonel Baker's book
on the Secret Service. He had no case as slick as this. Smith, you were
so frank and open, I would have told you anything you wanted to know."

I presume he was reading Baker's book to see how such cases as h