Budd Boyd's Triumph Part 24

"I never meant to wrong you at all, my dear lad. I never meant to send your innocent father, for I feel instinctively now he is innocent, to prison. I never meant to hasten your invalid mother's death. Tell me you forgive me, lad, for unless you do I can never forgive myself."

Tears streamed down Budd's cheeks, and with them went much of the anger he had cherished toward the speaker.

"I believe you," he said; "only, leave no stone unturned to set my father free and to put him right in the eyes of the world, and I freely forgive you all the suffering and unhappiness you have unintentionally caused me."

"I solemnly promise it; and believe me there is yet happiness for both father and son," said Mr. Johnson fervently; and wiping his own eyes, he went ash.o.r.e, to complete his arrangements for visiting the village.

And Budd, with a joy he could not tell, a.s.sisted his chum in getting the sloop ready for the pa.s.sage over to the main land, where their arrival with their prisoners was to create a profound sensation, and win for himself and partner not only the offered reward, but friends and fame.

CHAPTER XX.--THE CONFESSION.

"The burglars are captured!" "They are now in the lock-up!" "Avery, the constable, and those boys of Fox Island, brought them here in the Sea Witch!" "They say every dollar's worth of the stolen goods is recovered!" "The examination is at two o'clock this afternoon!"

These and a hundred other similar exclamations ran along the streets of the village, were repeated in shop and store and house, discussed on the street-corners, and carried out into the surrounding country, within two hours after the sloop had tied up at the public wharf.

And yet very little was really known, for on arriving at the dock Mr.

Avery had left the sloop and prisoners in charge of the two lads while he went quietly up the street and sought an interview with Clapp & St.

John, the jewelers. The immediate outcome of that interview was that two closely-covered carriages were driven down to the wharf, and the prisoners were hastily put into these and driven rapidly up to the lock-up, where they were quickly incarcerated. Almost as quickly, a huge express wagon went down to the dock, and bags, gripsacks and bundles, containing the robbers' booty and traps, were transferred from the sloop to the waiting vehicle, covered with a large sail-cloth, and driven off to Clapp & St. John's place of business, where they were safely stored. Then warrants were sworn out in rapid succession by Clapp & St. John, by Mr. Johnson, for he had arrived at the village almost as soon as the Sea Witch, and by the lads themselves, against the criminals.

Just what the specific charges were, and how the burglars had been found, was not generally known; but enough had been seen by the inhabitants of that staid community to excite their curiosity, and to set their tongues a-wagging with a velocity that in any other bodily member would have been absolutely dangerous.

So it happened that when the hour of the burglars' examination came a crowd had gathered in the court-room that filled it to its utmost capacity, and a larger crowd was in the court-yard and the adjacent street. Through this a.s.sembly the prisoners were with great difficulty taken, and their trial began.

But if the eager audience were expecting any special developments they were doomed to disappointment, for when the warrant charging the prisoners with feloniously entering and robbing Clapp & St. John's store was read, each burglar in his turn waived examination, and was bound over, without bonds, to the higher court.

Something of a surprise swept over the audience, however, when the prisoners were again arraigned and a second warrant was read, charging them with the burglary of Mr. Johnson's house on Hope Island. To this, as in the first instance, the accused responded by waiving an examination, and were again bound over, without bonds, to the next term of the superior court.

Many of the audience evidently thought this ended the judicial proceedings, and they arose to leave the room. The prisoners, too, apparently thought the same, for they turned toward the officers who were guarding them as though expecting to be immediately taken away.

But for the third time they were called to the bar, and a deathlike stillness fell upon the throng as a third warrant was read, charging three of the prisoners with having forcibly entered, with the intent of robbing, the house on Fox Island, on Sat.u.r.day night, June 17th. Then there was a hurried consultation between the leader of the gang, who had given the name of Brill, and Bagsley and the third man of the party who was accused of this crime, and who answered to the name of Hawkins.

The result of the consultation was that the three men for the third time waived an examination, and for the third time were bound over to the higher court.

As though getting impatient with the whole proceedings, the Justice immediately called the five men to the bar to listen to the reading of a fourth warrant, which charged the entire party with "having taken the sloop Sea Witch, with force of arms, from her lawful owner, and having, with great detriment to said owner's bodily health and disadvantage to his property and business, run off with the same." With hopeless faces and sinking hearts the prisoners no longer waived an examination but pleaded guilty to the charge, and, as on the three former charges, were bound over to the superior court.

While the audience was slowly dispersing, the papers for the commitment of the prisoners to the county jail were filled out by the presiding Justice, and then, under a strong guard, they were taken out to the waiting carriages and driven rapidly off toward the county-seat. Before sunset this had been reached, and the criminals placed in separate cells within the strong walls of the jail.

Mr. Johnson and Budd had both agreed that it would be wiser to postpone their interview with Bagsley until he had been committed to jail and knew the full consequences of the criminal acts with which he and his confederates had been charged. They hoped, too, that his solitary confinement might subdue his resentful spirit to such an extent that he would be willing to listen to the proposition they had to make. They therefore arranged to go up to Kingston together early in the coming week for the interview, on which their hopes so largely centered. But unknown to them a series of circ.u.mstances were already beginning to work in their behalf.

The first step in the series began right in the court-room. While the audience was dispersing and the Justice was filling out the commitment-papers the prisoners were huddled close together within the court-room railing. The officers allowed them to converse together, thinking, doubtless, it would be the last time they could do so for a number of weeks, if not for a number of years. Brill, the leader of the gang, changed his position a little so as to bring him beside Bagsley, and then he said, in a low tone:

"It is a hard outlook for us, Tom."

"Yes," his companion replied, gloomily.

"It can't be less than twenty years on all the charges," continued Brill, cautiously, lest his words should be overheard by the attending officers.

"Do you think so?" asked Bagsley.

"Yes, unless you can work on the sympathies of old Johnson and that boy to let us off on some of the charges," remarked the leader, significantly.

"What do you mean? They are more bitter against me than all the rest of you," responded Bagsley, with some irritation in his tones.

"Yes, and for cause; but suppose you remove that cause?" said Brill, pointedly.

"And get myself in a worse sc.r.a.pe," snapped Bagsley.

"Not necessarily; you can put your conditions, and help yourself and the rest of us," was the hasty reply; for the papers were now completed, and the officers were handcuffing the prisoners together previous to leading them from the room.

Enough had been said, however, to excite in Bagsley's heart a hope he would not be slow to follow up.

The next step in the series of circ.u.mstances working favorably for the fulfillment of Budd's purpose occurred the next day, way off among the hills of New Hampshire. Bagsley, it will be remembered, was known, and however it may have been with his companions, he was not able to conceal his ident.i.ty under a false name. The newspapers, therefore, recording the capture of the burglars, gave his name in full; and one of those papers went into the boyhood home of the unfortunate man, carrying dismay to his aged father and mother still abiding there. The name was that of their only son, from whom they had not heard in long months, and of whose career they had for a long time had misgiving.

So the aged father sat down, and with trembling hand wrote to the keeper of the jail asking for further particulars as to the robbery, and a complete identification, if possible, of the prisoner who bore his son's name. This letter in due time reached the jailer, and was at once taken to Bagsley's cell. He bore up bravely under the words the father had penned, but when he read at the bottom of the sheet a single line in the mother's handwriting--that line reading "If you are our Tommy, let us know at once, and we'll come to you and spare no expense to save you"--he broke completely down. The memory of his mother--of her love, that had ever stood ready to shield him--had touched his heart. He was not as hardened as he himself had thought, and a desire to see his mother once more before the prison-walls closed upon him for long years, and to hear from her own lips that she forgave her wayward boy, led him to answer his father's letter.

So the third and last step in this chain of circ.u.mstances began when his letter, two days later, reached the little mountain village. Closing up their little home, the aged father and mother drew from the savings bank their small h.o.a.rd of hard-earned money and set out for the place of their son's incarceration. Everyone they met seemed to understand that some heavy affliction had fallen upon the gray-haired couple, and with kind words and willing hands they were helped on their way, and on the Monday following the arrest of the criminals they reached the door of the Kingston jail and asked to see their boy.

Without delay they were taken to Bagsley's cell, and then ensued an interview too sacred but for the angels of heaven to have witnessed. In humble contrition the penitent man disclosed to his broken-hearted parents the whole story of his criminal life, and acknowledged that there was no possible escape from long years of confinement unless Mr.

Johnson and Budd Boyd could be persuaded to withdraw their charges against him. So the next morning the father started off to find the lad and the gentleman who held so much of his son's fate in their hands, and met them on their way up to the county-seat to hold an interview with his son. Under these circ.u.mstances it was not hard to effect an agreement, and Bagsley consented to make a full and complete vindication of Henry Boyd if Mr. Johnson's charge and the two charges of Boyd & Floyd against him and his a.s.sociates were withdrawn. This was what both Mr. Johnson and Budd were willing to do, and the confession of such vital importance to two persons at least--Budd and his father--was duly drawn up and signed.

It stated in substance that Bagsley, on entering Mr. Johnson's employ, had been detected in light pilfering by Mr. Boyd, but upon his making full rest.i.tution and promising to never be guilty of such an act again Mr. Boyd had consented to keep the matter from Mr. Johnson. Instead of being grateful to Mr. Boyd for thus shielding him from Mr. Johnson's anger, Bagsley had resolved to have his revenge for what he termed Boyd's unwarranted interference with that which was none of his business. The opportunity came when Mr. Johnson carelessly left the combination-number of the safe upon his private desk. Making a copy of it, Bagsley had taken the thousand dollars for himself, and forged the check and sent it with the accompanying letter to Mr. Boyd's house just as he was about to start for the South with his invalid wife. He had opened and destroyed the letter of thanks that Mr. Boyd had sent Mr.

Johnson upon receiving the check, and the result of his plans had been exactly what he had antic.i.p.ated. Mr. Boyd was arrested, tried and convicted of the two crimes, forgery and theft, while he who had really committed the acts had been unsuspected.

The confession went on to state that Bagsley had overheard all that pa.s.sed between Budd and Mr. Johnson in the private office, and believing that Budd was working to prove his guilt he had a.s.saulted him on the next day. Not content with this, he had sought for the lad repeatedly to frighten him into silence, but at length learned he had left the city.

His connection with the criminals had come about in a perfectly natural way through the dissipated habits he had formed. When in a gambling-saloon one night he had run in with Brill, who, finding that Bagsley had plenty of money, accused him of having taken the thousand dollars for which Henry Boyd had been arrested. Bagsley at first denied this, but being unable to account for the money in any other way, he finally admitted it.

From that hour Brill had a hold upon him, and led him from one crime to another until the series of crimes for which he and his companions had now been arrested.

There was a particularity of detail throughout the whole confession that evinced its truth, and with the doc.u.ment in his pocket Mr. Johnson took the first train for Boston, to place in the hands of the Governor and his Council, the matter of Henry Boyd's pardon for a crime he had never committed; while Budd drove off home, to immediately write and send to his father a letter giving a full account of the events that had transpired in the last few days, and setting forth the prospect of his--the father's--release, as soon as the legal steps necessary for it could be complied with.

As we shall now lose sight of Bagsley in our story, it may be stated here that he and his companions in crime were duly arraigned for the burglary of Clapp & St. John's jewelry store, at the November term of the superior court, and knowing that the evidence of their guilt was absolute, they thought it wiser to plead guilty and throw themselves upon the mercy of the Court. The other charges were not brought up against them, but they were known, and without doubt had much to do with the heavy sentence that was p.r.o.nounced upon them, namely--ten years each at hard labor in the State Penitentiary.

The reward offered for their arrest and conviction was in due time paid over to Mr. Avery and the two lads. Mr. Avery, finding the part he had played in the affair had obtained for him a popularity that was destined to give him the office of County Sheriff at the next election, magnanimously insisted that the hundred dollars paid the captain of the tug should come out of his portion of the reward alone; so that the young firm received an even thousand dollars as their compensation for the trying experiences they had undergone in discovering and bringing to justice the gang of criminals.

But a full month before this money was paid over, an event happened that to Budd at least far transcended any amount of pecuniary gain. It was the reception, through the post-office, of a large official doc.u.ment from the Governor of Ma.s.sachusetts, announcing the full pardon and ordering the immediate release of Henry Boyd. Along with it came a personal note from the Governor pleasantly suggesting that the son, who had so thoroughly believed in and worked for the establishment of the father's innocence, should be the one to first carry the good news to the pardoned man.

CHAPTER XXI.--FATHER AND SON.

The weeks that had elapsed between the confession of Bagsley and the reception of the important doc.u.ment from the Governor of Ma.s.sachusetts had hung heavily on Budd's hands. He chafed under the legal technicalities that seemed to be constantly arising to delay a result that he knew was inevitable, and which he thought ought to come immediately. Still his hope sustained him, and with his partner he attended strictly to the work in which they were engaged.