Being satisfied that a young lad of sufficient abilities to compose these documents in such a style, could not have been made the innocent dupe of any one, especially a stranger, I determined to lay the whole matter before his employer, a prominent member of the New York bar. He had heard nothing of it before, and was much pained to hear my narration, for he was warmly attached to the young student, who, up to that time had enjoyed his entire confidence, and for whose improvement and legal education he had taken unusual pains.
A moment's reference to the Law Register, a work containing the names and residences of all the members of the legal profession in every State in the Union, and to be found in almost every law office, showed the source whence he had obtained the list which had been "dropped by carelessness" into the post-office, for pencil marks appeared against the names of most of the _country_ lawyers, but including none of those that had ever been correspondents of the firm with which he was connected!
The opinion that there was no accomplice, nor even principal, in the case, beyond the boy himself, was fully coincided in by his employer, and it was at once decided to call the lad up for a private examination.
I thought, as he entered the room, cap in hand, and with an air of perfect _nonchalance_, that I had seldom seen a more expressive and intelligent countenance. His high forehead, adorned with graceful curls of brown hair, his full and laughing eye, and the regular features of his face, seemed made for some better use than to delude unwary victims.
"George," said his employer, "what do these Jolliet letters mean, that you have been sending all over the country?"
_Boy._--"I will tell you all I know about it, sir. Some weeks since, as I was coming in town one morning, in the Harlem cars, a man calling himself Jolliet----"
_Agent._--"Stop, George, and hear me a moment before you go further. We don't want to hear that story. We know there is no such person as Jolliet, and if you go on with such a statement before Mr. F.," (his employer,) "your pride will render it harder for you to make the acknowledgments that I know you must come to. You have had no accomplice, and if you will bring me the Law Register, I will show you where you got the names of the lawyers to whom you sent the letters."