Jim Cummings; Or, The Great Adams Express Robbery Part 24

"You have been doing that for some time."

"That's all right. Now, what am I here for?"

"Just so. What ARE you here for?"

"You've got the wrong man, Mr. Pinkerton."

"Indeed?"

"Just now you called me 'Mr. c.u.mmings'."

"I should, perhaps, have said Mr. Wittrock."

"What did you call me 'c.u.mmings' for, then."

"As you christened yourself you ought to know."

"I'm arrested, of course, now for what?"

"To tell the fact, Mr. Wittrock, it is because some time last October you played a little joke on the Adams Express Company, and they appreciated it so highly that they hired me to find you so that they could tell you so."

"You dare accuse me of committing that robbery?"

"That's about the size of it."

"Why, man, I wasn't within five hundred miles of the place when it occurred."

"Where were you?"

"I was in New Orleans."

"Positive of that?"

"I can PROVE it."

"You can?"

"Yes, I can. You go over to my coalyard at--West Lake street, and ask my partner, Weaver. He will tell you where I was at that time."

"Is he your partner?"

"Yes."

"Strange, very strange. He said he bought you out last October."

"You've been there, have you?"

"That is what he said."

"He lies."

"Or you do."

"You wouldn't dare say that outside of this room."

"Don't get excited, Mr. Wittrock. We have had enough bantering. You might as well make a clean breast of the whole affair, for we have a clear case against you."

"I tell you I was at New Orleans at the time."

"You were not. Listen to me and I can prove you are a liar."

Wittrock flushed, and he began to get angry, which was just what Mr.

Pinkerton wanted, and glaring at his persecutor he folded his arms and settled defiantly back in his chair. Mr. Pinkerton quietly continued:

"A week before the robbery was committed you and a man named Haight took a room at Chestnut street. On the twenty-third of October you sent a valise to Daniel Moriarity at Leavenworth, Kansas, and a letter instructing him to give its contents to Oscar Cook, of Kansas City. A few days after you committed the robbery, and in a cave near Pacific, you, with Moriarity and Haight, divided the ill-gotten wealth. You then rowed down the river to St. Louis, or near there, and from thence went to Kansas City. You were often seen playing faro at the White Elephant, and one night you knocked one of my men senseless when he had arrested Moriarity, and took him to old Nance, the widow. Still later, you, Cook and Moriarity took refuge at Swanson's ranche in the Indian Territory, and after attempting to rob your host, which attempt was frustrated by my men, you came, in some roundabout way, to Chicago, where you put up at the Commercial Hotel, disguised by a false mustache. Every evening you went to West Lake street, and last night you were arrested. Now, Mr. Wittrock, what have you to say?"

"That's a very pretty yarn; but as I don't happen to be the man that did all that I don't see how it concerns me."

"Look at that and tell me what you have to say," and Mr. Pinkerton laid before him the sworn deposition of Daniel Moriarity, in which all the facts that Mr. Pinkerton had been relating were set forth, Wittrock did not show a trace of feeling other than amus.e.m.e.nt, as he read the long and legally worded doc.u.ment, and pa.s.sing it back to Mr. Pinkerton with a gesture of disdain, he said:

"So on the strength of that c.o.c.k-and-bull story you mean to hold me for that robbery?"

"Partly so."

"There isn't a word of truth in it. That man, Moriarity, is a noted liar."

"Ah!" said Mr. Pinkerton, quickly, "you know Moriarity?"

"That is--I mean--yes, I sort of know him," stammered Wittrock, in confusion; "I have heard of him."

"You are in desperate straits, Mr. Wittrock," said the detective. "In such desperate straits that you are doing the worst possible thing--denying all that is proved true. We have you safe and secure, and enough evidence against you to send you to Jefferson City for a long term of years. You can lighten your sentence by one thing."

"You don't catch me that way, I am not to be taken in by soft words, and all the traps you set for me won't make me confess that I had anything to do with the robbery. You've arrested me without cause, and if there is any law in the land I'll make you suffer for it," and Wittrock walked excitedly around the room.

Mr. Pinkerton did not reply to this, but touching a bell, told the man who opened the door to bring in the other prisoners.

Wittrock had resumed his seat, his head bowed forward and eyes cast down, but hearing the door opening, he glanced up and saw Weaver and Haight, followed by two detectives, ushered into his room.

Both of them looked discouraged and broken-spirited. The heart had been taken from them by their arrest, and Wittrock's boldness and defiant manner began to melt as he saw his faint-hearted accomplices.

"You here, too," he exclaimed.

"Looks like it, don't it," said Haight, with a grim smile.

"You may as well own up, Fred," said Weaver, "they have the drop on us."

"Coward!" hissed Wittrock. Then turning suddenly to Mr. Pinkerton, he said: