Counterfeit

Chapter 5

Doctor Adams saw six patients that morning, but towards afternoon things became quiet in his office and he began to look around and decide what he needed to take with him to St. Louis. The telegram said a friend needed help – but what kind of help? It had been addressed to him as Dr. G Adams, so he could only presume the friend needed medical help – but then there were excellent medical facilities in St. Louis so why were his skills needed there? Was Matt even the friend referred to? It could even be some kind of trap being set – but by whom or for what reason he could not guess. He really thought it could turn out to be a dangerous situation and that it would be better if Kitty did not go with him – but he also knew it was useless to put forth that argument to the feisty red head.

He always felt uneasy about leaving the people of Dodge without a Doctor for any length of time, but where Marshal Dillon was concerned he knew he had no choice but to drop everything and go – he never asked for help except in dire circumstances – of course there was always the possibility that this had nothing to do with the Dodge City Lawman. Hopefully he would only be gone for four or five days.

Thinking it through he decided to put a few basic instruments into his black bag along with some bandages, his stethoscope and a small bottle of Laudanum.

Kitty, meanwhile had talked with Sam explaining that she would be gone for a few days, hopefully no more than a week.

"Is it something to do with the Marshal, Miss Kitty?"

"I don't know Sam, but Doc is coming with me, and if it is, we will bring him back safe and sound."

She tried hard to sound confident about the trip, but there were so many possibilities behind the brief telegram that she could not bring herself to consider them all. She had always been one to think positively, never allowing herself to dwell on the dark side of things for long. This had to work out all right, there was no way she could go on not knowing what was happening to the man who had stolen her heart. If the telegram had come from Matt, she knew he was in trouble and she would move heaven and earth to help him.

She went up to her room after the lunchtime business had slowed down and tried to decide what she should take. Just some simple clothes for travel, a change of undergarments and some toiletries – that should be enough. Carefully she packed them in a medium sized carpet bag. At the last minute she picked up the Derringer that she kept tucked in a drawer and added some bullets, which she tucked down in the bag. The small pistol went into her reticule – you never could be too prepared. With that thought in mind her eye caught Matt's holster and pistol – it was lying there in the bottom of her armoire, right where she left it the day it came home to Dodge. She looked at it for a second or two, then thinking it just might come in useful, she took the colt pistol and pushed it into the bag she would be taking, covering it with the clothes she had already packed.

-XX-

The Marshal had very little knowledge of the problems with counterfeit money. He knew that since the end of the civil war it had been appearing in the some of the bigger cities, but never understood the extent of the problem. Director Brooks was continuing with his explanation and Matt was doing his best to learn all he could. According to Brooks, at one time as much as one third of the currency in circulation had been counterfeit.

"If this were generally known it would drastically devalue the currency and could even bring about the downfall of the new nation."

In 1865 President Lincoln had established the Secret Service Division of the Treasury and it was their mission to investigate and bring to justice all persons associated with the crime of counterfeiting. They had done a good job to begin with and with redesign of the currency, using special inks and paper and a more complicated design, the amount of fake bills had declined. In the last year or so counterfeiting was once more on the increase. The perpetrators were becoming cleverer. The plates they had produced for printing the bogus currency were much more like the real thing and somehow they seemed to be getting hold of the official paper and inks used by the treasury.

To begin with it seemed they were working out of New York, and a group of agents had tracked them down almost to the point of recovering the illegal plates, but then those agents just disappeared, never heard from again. The group responsible had moved their operation to Richmond Virginia and again service agents had been on their trail – only to wind up in the James River. Maybe Nathan here has already told you some of this?"

"Some," said Dillon – "but please continue."

"Fortunately we became aware of a Mr. John Henry Weeks who had been in contact with the group we are after. He is not a particularly honest man and we managed to find sufficient charges to hold him for a while. Before his arrest he had arranged a meeting with Clement Mendoza, the man who acts as a drummer for the counterfeiters. He arranges to sell the bogus bills to individuals for a discounted rate and then they will pass them out as legitimate currency. Mendoza is not our prime target, we want two things, those plates and the people at the top of the organization. To put it briefly we want you to take Weeks's place and find out who these people are and try to get those plates."

"That is a tall order, Mr. Brooks. I have never done this kind of work before. I am not sure I could recognize a counterfeit bill if I saw one."

"We are going to teach you, Marshal. In about ten days time you will be an expert. You will also learn to be John Henry Weeks."

TBC