_Dear Kate_:
I can't write much, I am so nervous I am near crazy. The police are hot
after Jim, and they haven't done a thing to me but give me the third
degree twice. Once they had me up before the captain of the police
station here, and once they had me at the central office where the old
man himself took a turn at me. I was there four hours, and they done
everything they could to make me tell short of putting me behind the
bars. They promised me that they would see you got better time, but I
know that is only hot air, and they coaxed and bullied and tried to
scare me for hours. I told them that it was on the level, I didn't know
where he was. I said "yes" that I'd seen him, that he came to me but
left the same night. The Captain was rotten with me, and if it hadn't
been for Tom Cassidy, I think he would a locked me up until Jim was
found. But that great big cop stood up for me and said, "Oh, Captain,
take my word for it, she is all right. She ain't lying. I watched her
for years and she is on the level. The only thing to do is to watch
her." He talked quite a lot with the Captain and they let me go, but I
tell you setting four hours with a police captain who knows you and your
people from the time they entered the ark, and who thinks you are lying
just because your relations are crooks, ain't a rest cure for nervous
women. I can't dance worth a damn, and I am so fidgety that if I hear a
door slam I go all to pieces.
That ain't all either. When I was just turning our corner the other
night a man came out of Sweeney's saloon and handed me a note from Jim
asking me to give the bearer fifty dollars. I had been expecting it so I
went down in my sock and give it to him. I don't know who he was, but I
was dead scared for fear that he'd been seen.
Don't worry, things will come right some way. They can't be much worse.
I will write you all the news.
_Nan_.