Crime & punishment > Curiosities of crime in Edinburgh during the last thirty years

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THE BROKER’S SECRET.
all the stolen articles he gets, and, I tell you, you ’ll
never find them.”
“Where is that secret place V’
“ I don’t know; nobody knows but himself and his
wife.”
“ You are certain it is within the house 1 ”
“ Yes.”
“ And if you cannot tell in what part of the house it
is, nor what kind of place it is, whether above ground
or under, how do you come to know of it at all ? ”
“ I cannot tell how it came to be known,” said he ;
“ all I can say is, that it is a secret among us.”
It now flashed upon me that this man, Thomas
Hamilton, had been long able to put us at fault; and
the information I now got explained to me his way of
doing business. He was thought to be rich, and rich
he might well be, from a lucrative trade said to have
been so well conducted. He was known to be a hawker
as well as broker, going about the country, and disposing
of articles which he could not have exposed in Edin¬
burgh ; and having this secret place of deposit, whereby
he could, as he so often had done, elude our diligent
search, he was always at his ease. I had no doubt he
had carried on the system for a long period, and been
enabled not only to save a deal of money, but to pre¬
serve among the fraternity, or rather sisterhood, of bro¬
kers a fair reputation.
Taking four men with me to watch, in case, upon my
disturbing the secret fountain, some streams might take