"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 assembly 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 Saturday 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 circumstances 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 scrape," 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 circumstances 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 identity 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 circumstances 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 hoard 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 circumstances 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 associates 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 restitution 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 anticipated. 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
passed between Budd and Mr. Johnson in the private office, and believing
that Budd was working to prove his guilt he had assaulted 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 document 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 pronounced 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 document
from the Governor of Massachusetts, 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.