this book was not published for the purpose of displaying any literary ability i may possess, as i have never aspired to win fame by the wielding of a pen. within its pages, however, i have attempted, in my own way and in my own manner, to make clear to the reader the inside or hitherto unpublished facts about some of the big cases i have handled during the fifty years i have made the prevention of crime and the tracking and punishment of criminals my profession. how well i have succeeded, i will leave it to the reader to judge.

i am today, i believe, the oldest detective, in point of continuous service, in this or any other country. during my long career i have handled many important cases, of which the reading public knows nothing about, for the reason that the men, or corporations, by whom i was employed, did not hire me for the purpose of furnishing newspapers with the material with which to amuse or entertain their readers. within these pages i tell how the work was done, and how the clues were found and put together. on the other hand, many cases referred to in this book have received much newspaper publicity, but in these articles the writers were not permitted to tell all the inside facts—how the work was really accomplished. these facts are made public for the first time.

in a few instances i have changed, or veiled, the names of the culprits about whom the articles were written. for doing this i do not propose to apologize, however. these men are alive today and are leading upright lives. they[pg 4] have paid the penalty demanded by the law and society, and i cannot see where it would do any good to again publish their early digressions to the world. i have no disposition to willfully malign any one, and names are only used in cases in which the facts are supported by documents in the archives of the courts of this country, canada and mexico, the scenes of my greatest activity.

in selecting material for this book i have only used cases which were out of the ordinary, or in the unraveling of which some original or unique detective work was done. no attempt has been made to enlarge on the facts at hand. the book is just a simple narration of real detective work done on real cases handled by me—no attempt having been made to color them as an experienced writer would do, or is done to the work or the deductions of the phantom detectives by the writers of fiction.

hoping that the book will serve the purpose for which it is issued i am,

yours truly,

thos. furlong.