_A terrible Struggle for Life or Death upon the Transfer-boat
"Illinois."--"Overboard!"--One less Desperado.--The Fourth and
Last Robber taken._
After Barton had made his confession to William in St. Louis, the
prisoners, Hillary Farrington and Barton, were kept separate, as the
latter was afraid that Hillary would find some means of killing him.
About midnight of Thursday, December fourteenth, they all took passage
by railroad for Cairo, and there they immediately went on board the
large transfer-boat to Columbus, Kentucky. All the detectives were
thoroughly worn out from excitement and loss of sleep, but they did not
for an instant relax their vigilant watch upon their prisoners. William
had been talking for some time with Hillary, trying to obtain a
confession and to learn what had been done with the money secured at the
two robberies. From the questions that William asked, Hillary soon
learned, or surmised, that Barton had confessed. He was terribly
enraged at this, and without doubt he would have killed Barton if he
could have got at him; but being unable to do so, his fury was all
turned upon his captors.
My son hoped by threatening to have Mrs. Farrington arrested and
imprisoned, to induce Hillary to give up his share of the plunder rather
than have his mother punished. This threat seemed to infuriate him
beyond anything, and he swore that he would have his revenge on William
if he had to wait twenty years for it. After sitting sullenly thinking
on the subject for a time, he said he was cold, and wanted to get a
drink. William therefore offered to go with him into the bar-room, and
they walked toward the forward end of the saloon, leaving Galway and
Barton seated together. Connell had gone into the water-closet a few
moments before, but, as there was a detective with each of the
prisoners, no attempt at escape was anticipated.
The steamer was the powerfully-built transfer-boat "Illinois," and she
was running with great speed, her ponderous wheels revolving at an
unusually rapid rate. The bar-room was situated just forward of the
saloon, after passing through the barber shop, and it could be entered
from the saloon or through a door leading upon the guards, just forward
of the paddle-box.
As they were about to enter the barber shop from the saloon, Hillary
drew back, saying that he did not want to go that way, as there were
some men in that room whom he knew. They therefore went out upon the
guards to walk along to the outer door of the bar-room. The space was
narrow, and the rail quite low, so that it would not have been at all
difficult for a man to spring overboard, even though he were in irons.
This idea occurred to William, but he did not trouble himself about it,
since he knew that the heavy strokes of the paddle-wheel would instantly
kill any one who might attempt such a thing. William wore a
loose-fitting sack coat with large pockets, in one of which he carried a
heavy army revolver, which he had taken from Hillary, his own revolver
being in his belt. In walking it was his habit to put his hand on the
butt of this army revolver, which protruded somewhat from the pocket. On
reaching the door, however, he took his right hand from the pistol to
turn the knob. This was a careless action, of which he never would have
been guilty, had he been less fatigued, mentally and physically, but,
being so used up as to act almost mechanically, his habitual
thoughtfulness was momentarily absent, and he was caught off his guard
for an instant in a manner which nearly cost him his life. It should be
understood that the scene which ensued occurred so rapidly as to occupy
less time in its passage than is required to read about it, and that
during those few seconds a struggle of life and death was going on.
Hardly had William's hand touched the doorknob ere he felt the pistol
drawn out of his coat pocket. He knew there was but one person who
could have done it, and that person was a perfect devil thirsting for
his blood. Turning like a flash, he seized Farrington by both wrists,
just as the latter was trying to cock the pistol; then there was a
terrible contest. The pistol was in Farrington's hands, which were held
so close together by the irons as to make it impossible to wrench one
away from the other; it was pointed directly at William's head, and
should Farrington succeed in cocking it, William's death would be
instantaneous. All his energies, therefore, were directed toward keeping
Farrington's hands far enough apart to prevent him from drawing back the
hammer. The space was too narrow to permit of such a struggle without
one party or the other being forced back upon the rail, and, in a
moment, William had lifted his lighter antagonist from the deck,
pressing him against the railing, and at the same time shouting for
assistance. In response to his call, Connell came running out in
_dishabille_, with his pistol in one hand and his pantaloons in the
other. At this moment the cold muzzle of the pistol was pressed against
William's temple, and he heard the click of the hammer as his desperate
prisoner succeeded in drawing it back. He made a violent plunge forward,
ducking his head as he did so, and simultaneously the pistol exploded
close to his ear, the ball ploughing a little furrow in the scalp, while
the powder scorched his neck and hair. Staggering back stunned and dizzy
for a moment, he was caught by Connell, who asked whether he was much
hurt. He soon gathered his senses, and, finding his wound to be only
trifling, he asked what had become of Farrington. Connell pointed
overboard, and no further answer was necessary; no man dropping in front
of those wheels could have lived for an instant, and, even had he not
been struck, he could not have kept himself up in the rapid current then
running filled with fine ice.
By this time the bar-room, barber shop, and saloon had been emptied of
their occupants, and the boat had been stopped to see whether the man
could be picked up; but, as this was clearly hopeless, the trip was soon
resumed. Connell's arrival had been most opportune for William, since he
had caught the weapon the moment it was discharged, and succeeded in
changing the course of the bullet sufficiently to save William's life.
Thinking, however, that William had been killed, Connell had struck
Farrington on the head with his pistol almost simultaneously with the
explosion, and the blow, aided by the plunge which William made forward
in endeavoring to dodge the pistol-shot, had sent Farrington over the
rail into the water, where he was undoubtedly killed the next instant by
the paddle-wheels.
The fact of the man's death was so absolutely certain that no person
could doubt it, if acquainted with the circumstances; yet there were not
wanting people who insinuated that he had been allowed to escape by
jumping overboard and swimming ashore. The absurdity of such a story is
manifest, for, even supposing that his irons had been removed, and that
he had escaped injury from the paddle-wheels, he never could have swam
ashore at the spot where the affair occurred. The nearest point of the
river bank was more than three hundred yards away, and the current at
that place was running off the shore; besides, the night was very cold,
and the water was covered with a film of ice, so that after five
minutes' immersion in it, a man would have become wholly numbed and
insensible.
Barton was not at all surprised when he heard of Hillary Farrington's
death, for he said that he knew Hillary so well that he had expected
nothing else from the time he was taken; he was so desperate that his
intention undoubtedly had been to have seized William and dragged him
overboard; but, seeing the pistol, another idea had probably occurred to
him. Barton said that had Hillary succeeded in killing William, he would
have gone up to the pilot-house with the revolver, and forced the pilot
to land him immediately; once on shore, his knowledge of the country
would have enabled him to escape again. Whatever had been his plans,
however, he had failed in his attempt at murder, and had paid the
penalty of his rashness with his life.
The rest of the party went on to Columbus, where they took passage for
Union City, arriving there Friday morning.
About this time, Mr. Ball, who had been sent to follow the wagon train
of Mrs. Farrington, reported, after a silence of several days, that he
had traced her into the Indian Territory. In point of fact, she was
settled at Ash Grove, near Mount Vernon, in Greene County, Missouri, and
had been there ever since Hillary and Barton had left her before their
arrest at Durham's. It will thus be seen how fortunate it was that I had
not trusted to Ball and Bledsoe to keep track of Mrs. Farrington, since
they had utterly lost the trail, and had followed another set of wagons
for several days as far as the Indian Territory; when, probably
suspecting that he had made a mistake, Ball telegraphed to the express
company's officers for instructions. He was then ordered to return at
once with Bledsoe, the whole party having been captured by that time.
While speaking of Mrs. Farrington, I may as well give an account of all
our dealings with her, irrespective of the chronological order of the
story:
Having received Barton's order upon her for all of the wagons and stock,
and for five hundred and fifty dollars in money, Cottrell endeavored to
attach her property in a civil suit. She insisted that she had none of
Barton's money--indeed, that she had no money at all--and she refused to
give up anything. At last, finding that he could not legally attach her
property, Cottrell took the bold step of arresting her for receiving
stolen goods. She was taken to Mount Vernon, where she engaged a lawyer
to defend her, and then, of course, Cottrell was also obliged to employ
a legal adviser. At length, a compromise was effected, by which Mrs.
Farrington was allowed to retain a small portion of the property;
Cottrell then took possession of the remainder as agent of the express
company, and Mrs. Farrington was discharged from custody. After selling
some of the animals, Cottrell shipped all the remaining chattels to St.
Louis, where the agent of the express company took charge of them. The
two detectives then returned to Chicago, and no further attention was
paid to Mrs. Farrington.
On Saturday, after the arrival of William's party, with Barton, in Union
City, Detectives Galway and Connell started out to arrest Bill Taylor,
the fourth one of the party of robbers.
This man was a long, lank, round-shouldered fellow, with putty face,
long, straggling hair and beard, and a vacant expression of countenance,
who lived by hunting and chopping wood, below Lester's Landing, in the
vicinity of Reel's Foot Lake. William had been satisfied of his
complicity in the robbery for some time previous to the arrest of the
others, but he had not arrested him for the reason that he was sure of
picking him up whenever he wished to do so; and, knowing Taylor to have
been merely a weak accomplice, he was anxious to secure the leaders in
the crime first. Barton's confession made the suspicion of Taylor's
guilt a certainty, and so Galway and Connell were sent to arrest him.
At Mr. Merrick's they obtained a good guide, and four other citizens
joined them, so that they had quite a formidable party. After visiting
several houses in the cane-brake, they learned where Taylor was
staying, and, on going there, they saw him looking at them from a front
window. Galway asked Taylor to come down a few minutes to give them some
information, and Taylor unsuspectingly complied. He had been allowed to
go free so long, and had so often talked with William and others about
the robbery, that he did not imagine their object on this occasion. On
coming into the yard, therefore, he greeted the men cordially, supposing
them to be a party scouting for the other robbers, of whose arrest he
had not heard. When he saw a couple of navy revolvers close to his head,
and heard an order to throw up his hands, he surrendered without a word.
He was evidently badly frightened, but he would not confess having had
any part in the robbery, and he refused to tell where his share of the
money was concealed. He was placed on Connell's horse and taken to
Merrick's, where another horse was obtained, and the party went on to
Hickman; thence he was taken by wagon to Union City, arriving there
about midnight of Saturday. Both Barton and Taylor were placed in rooms
in the hotel, where they were carefully watched night and day by my
detectives, the county jail being almost useless as a place for keeping
prisoners.
On learning that the whole party had been arrested, Taylor made a very
full confession of all the circumstances connected with the robbery, and
the movements of the robbers after it had occurred. He confirmed
Barton's account in every particular, but revealed nothing new of any
importance. His share of the stolen money had been only about one
hundred and fifty dollars, as Levi had made him believe that they had
obtained only six hundred dollars in all. About fifty dollars were found
on Taylor's person; the rest he had spent. He said that Levi Farrington
had hidden all the checks, drafts, and unnegotiable paper underneath an
old log in the woods, but that he could not tell where the log was, nor
find it, since it was not marked in any way, nor had they taken any
bearings by which to remember it. He gave an account of the evening when
Hicks, the tipsy planter, came to their camp-fire, which agreed exactly
with the previous statements of Hicks and Barton; but one slight remark
in his confession seemed to account for the fifth man mentioned by
Hicks. Taylor said that during most of the time Hicks was at their camp,
one or two of the party were lying on the ground with their feet toward
the fire, and that there was a log of wood lying beside them. Now, it is
probable that Hicks was just drunk enough to be unable to tell the
difference between a man and a log, especially as, in his description of
the men, he gave the appearance of Hillary Farrington twice as belonging
to different persons. Hicks's vision was somewhat uncertain that night,
evidently.