"'Well,' says he, 'now have you got a bondsman?'
"'A what?' says I.
"'A bondsman--someone to go bail for you.'
"'No,' I answered, for I knew nothing about such things.
"'What! I thought you told me you had a lot of friends who had money!
You haven't been trifling with me, have you?'
"I knew I hadn't told him anything of the sort, but I thought that maybe
he had forgotten; so I said I hadn't any friends who had any money, and
knew no one to go bail for me.
"'Bad! very bad!' said he. 'You've got to have money to get out. Isn't
there anyone who owes you money, or haven't you got some _claim_ or
something?'
"Then all of a sudden it flashed over me about the diamond and my fifty
per cent. of the reward, and then something in his eye made me think
again. It seemed to me that I had seen him before somewhere. I couldn't
remember just where, but the more I hesitated the surer I was. Then it
came over me that a few days in jail, more or less, made mighty little
difference when I was going to be a rich man so soon, and I decided I
had better hang on to what I'd got.
"'No,' said I, 'I ain't got nothin'.'
"'You lie!' says he, growing very red. 'You lie! You've got a claim
against the United States Government.'
"Then he saw he'd made a break.
"'Why, they all told me you caught a smuggler, or something, and had a
claim against the Government for a hundred dollars.'
"'A hundred!' I yelled. 'Twenty thousand!'
"'Oh!' said he, 'as much as that? Why, I'll get you out this afternoon.'
"'How?' said I.
"'Well, you will have to assign your claim so I can raise the money on
it. It's a mere form.'
"But the thought came into my mind, Better stay there ten years than let
him have the claim; so I said that I didn't understand such things, and
I'd just wait until I could be tried.
"'Tried?' said he. 'Why, you won't be tried for months.'
"My heart sank right down into my boots.
"'Don't be a fool!' he went on. 'Here you are, sick and in prison, and
if you don't raise money to get a bondsman you'll stay here a long time.
You might die. And if you assign that claim to me, I have a pull with
the Judge and I'll have you out by supper-time.'
"'I guess I'll wait awhile,' said I.
"'Think it over, anyway. Now I tell you what I'll do. To-morrow you go
up for pleading. You have to say whether you are guilty or not guilty.
I'll act as your lawyer and see you through that part of it for nothing,
and then if you still don't want to assign the claim, why, you can do
as you choose.'
"That seemed fair enough, so I agreed. I spent another night in the
cells, and next day about thirty of us were taken across the bridge into
the court-room. One by one we were led up to the bar, and the clerk
asked us were we guilty or not guilty. The ones that said they were
guilty went off to Sing Sing or Blackwell's Island. It scared the life
out of me. I was afraid that I might not be able to say 'not,' and so
get sent off too, but pretty soon I saw my lawyer.
"'P. Llewellyn Riggs!'
"Up jumped Mr. Lawyer and says, 'Not guilty.'
"'What day?' asked the clerk.
"'The 21st,' says Mr. Lawyer.
"I was dumb for a minute.
"'Look here,' I whispered. 'To-day's only the first--that's three
weeks.'
"'Keep quiet,' shouted an officer, and gave me a punch in the back.
"'It's all right,' whispered Mr. Lawyer. 'It's only a form.' And they
hustled me out back to the Tombs.
"I didn't hear anything all that day or the next. It seemed as if I
should go mad. But at last I was notified that my lawyer was there
again, and down I went glad enough for the change. By that time I was
feeling pretty seedy.
"'Well, young man,' said he, 'can we do business?'
"'That depends,' I answered.
"'Come, no fooling, now; if you want to get out, give me an assignment
of your claim.'
"'Never,' I replied.
"'Then to h---- with you!' he shouted; 'you can rot here alone and try
your case by yourself, and I hope you'll get twenty years.'
"I almost sank through the floor. Twenty years!"
Riggs had become quite dramatic, and was again leaning forward looking
me straight in the eyes.
"Well, I stood fast, and he cursed me out and left me, and I began to
feel that after all maybe I was a fool. I hadn't let my wife know where
I was, but now I wrote to her, and she came right down and comforted me.
A brave little woman she is, too. And what was more, she said that a
nice young lawyer had just moved into our house and had the flat below,
and she would go and get him.
"So next morning--I had been in there a week--the young lawyer came. I
liked him from the start. When I told him my first lawyer's name he just
leaned back and laughed.
"'Old Todd?' he says; 'why, he's the worst robber in the outfit. If he
had gotten that assignment he'd have let you lie here forever and been
in Paris by this time. You're a lucky man,' says he.
"Well, I thought so too, and laughed with him.
"'But,' he continued, 'you're in an embarrassing position. You can't get
out without money, and you can't collect your claim. You'll have to
assign it to someone. You can't assign it to your wife. That wouldn't be
valid. Haven't you got some friend?'
"'I'm afraid not,' said I.
"'That's unfortunate,' he remarked, looking out where the window ought
to be. 'Very unfortunate. I might lend you a couple of hundred myself,'
he added. 'I will, too!'
"The blood jumped right up in my throat.'
"'God bless you!' said I, 'you're a true friend!'
"He laid his hand on my shoulder.
"'You're in hard luck, old man, but you're going to win out. I'll stand
by you. Here's a five. I'll go out and get the rest right off.'
"Then all of a sudden I began to feel like a king. I could see myself in
a new suit, having a bottle up at the Haymarket. I realized that I was a
twenty-thousand-dollar millionaire. And just to show my chest, I said:
"'Why, you're an honest man and a true friend. You take my claim and go
and collect it this afternoon,' says I.
"'No,' he hesitated, 'it's too much responsibility. I'll trust you for
the money and you can pay me afterward.'
"But with that, ass that I was, I fell to begging him to take the claim,
and saying he must take it, just to show he believed I trusted him; and
so after a while he reluctantly yielded and filled out a paper, and I
signed it and got in the warden as a witness, and he rose to go.
"'Well, till this afternoon,' says he.
"'_Au revoir_,' I laughed, 'get yourself a bottle of wine for me,' says
I. And off he goes.
"As I passed back to the cells, who should I see beside the door but my
old lawyer.
"I shook my fist in his face.
"'You old robber,' I says, 'we'll see if I can't get along without you!'
"He sneered in my face.
"'Oh, you ---- fool!' says he, 'you poor, poor, ----, ---- fool!'
"Then he was gone. So I went back to the cell, and sang and whistled and
figured on where I should take my little Flossie for dinner. I waited
and waited. Six o'clock, and no word. Then I began to get nervous.
"'You poor, poor, ----, ---- fool!'
"The words rang around in my cell. Then something sort of gave inside. I
knew I'd been robbed, and I yelled and shook the bars of the door and
tried to get out. I cried for Flossie. The keepers came and told me to
keep still; but I was plump crazy, and kept on yelling until everything
got black and I fainted."
"And your lawyer never came back?"
"He never came back!" Riggs exclaimed. "He never came back! I've been
robbed! I'm a poor ---- fool, just as Todd said I was." Riggs burst into
maudlin tears.
I gave him what consolation I could, and promised thoroughly to
investigate his story.
The keeper and Riggs arose in unison, the same urbane smile that had
previously illuminated the countenance of the latter restored.
"You couldn't manage to let me have a handful of cigars, could you?" he
whispered. I gave him all I had. His cheek was irresistible. I would
have given him my watch had he intimated a desire for it.
Then I called up the Custom-house.
"Paid?" came back the voice of the United States District Attorney. "Of
course not. The claim is worthless until the diamond is sold; and,
anyway, such an assignment as you describe is invalid under our
statutes. You had better execute a revocation, however, and place it on
file here. Yes, I'll look out for the matter."
One day, about a week later, I was informed that Riggs had been
convicted of assault, and sentenced to a year's imprisonment on
Blackwell's Island. A jury of his peers had apparently proved less
credulous than myself.
Many strange epistles from his place of confinement now reached me,
hinting of terrible abuses, starvation, oppression, extortion. He was
still the victim of a conspiracy--this time of prison guards and fellow
convicts. He prayed for an opportunity to lay the facts before the
authorities. I threw the letters aside. It was clear he possessed a
powerful imagination, and yet his tale of the discovery of the diamond
had been absolutely true. Well, let the law take its course.
* * * * *
A year later a jovial-looking person called at my office, and I
recognized my old friend Riggs in a new brown derby hat and checked
suit.
After shaking hands warmly, he presented me with a card reading:
P. LLEWELLYN RIGGS,
Private Detective,
-- Broadway.
"Yes," he explained in answer to my surprised expression, "I've gone
into the detective business. My unfortunate conviction is only a sort of
advertisement, you know, and then I was the victim of an outrageous
conspiracy!"
"But," said I, "I thought you were going to retire on the proceeds of
the diamond."
"Why, haven't you heard?" he replied. "I gave my wife an assignment of
the claim with a power of attorney, and when the diamond was sold she
ran away."
"Ran away?"
"Yes; she took a friend of mine with her. But I shall find her--just as
I did the diamond!" He struck a Sherlock Holmes attitude. "By the way,
if you should ever want any detective work done you'll remember----"
"I am not likely to forget," I answered, "the victim of one of the most
remarkable conspiracies in history."
* * * * *
Meantime the Mexicans were tried, convicted, and sent to prison. The
jewels themselves were duly made the subject of condemnation
proceedings, and whoso peruseth The Federal Reporter for the year 1901
may read thereof under the title "The United States _vs._ One Diamond
Pendant and Two Ear-rings." They were, so to speak, tried, properly
convicted, and sold to the highest bidder. The Mexicans are still
serving out their time. One turned state's evidence, stating that he was
a musician and had won the love of a beautiful señorita in the city of
Mexico who had given him the gems to sell in order that they might have
money upon which to marry. He also protested that his sweetheart had
inherited them from her mother.
Inside the cover of the old red case is printed in gold letters: