“As soon as any considerable robbery was committed, and old Bates received intelligence by whom, he immediately went to the thieves, and inquired how the thing was done, where the person lived who was injured, and what the booty consisted of when taken away.
“Then pretending to chide them for their wickedness and exhorting them to live honest for the future, he gave it them, as his advice, to lodge what they had taken in a proper place, which he appointed, and promised to take some measures for their security, by getting the people to give them a reward to have their things returned to them again.
“Having thus wheedled those who had committed a robbery into compliance with his wishes, his next business was to divide the goods into several parcels, and cause them to be sent to different places, always avoiding them being sent to his own hands.
“Things being in this condition, Bates and Captain Jack went to the persons who had been robbed, and after condoling with them, pretended that they had some acquaintance with a broker to whom certain goods had been brought, some of which they suspected to have been stolen, and hearing that the person to whom they thus applied had been robbed, they thought it their duty to inform them thereof, and to enquire what goods they were which they had lost, in order to discover whether those they spoke of were the same or not.
“People who had had such losses were always ready to listen to anything of that kind, trusting to know something of their goods.
Therefore, in a day or two, Bates or Captain Jack was sure to come again, with intelligence that they had found part of the things, and that, providing no one was brought into trouble, and the broker had something in consideration of his care, they might be had again.
“This practice of old Bates, if well considered, carried with it a great deal of policy.
“For, first, it seemed a very honest act to prevail on evil persons to restore the goods that they had stolen.
“And then it was a great benefit to those who had been robbed to have their goods again upon a reasonable premium, old Bates all the while apparently taking nothing, his advantages arising out of the gratuity left with the broker, and out of what he had bargained to give the thief, who also found his advantage, the rewards being very nearly as large as the price given by receivers, since receiving became so dangerous, and affording, moreover, a certain security into the bargain.
“With respect to Bates or Jack, this contrivance placed them in safety from all the laws then in being, so that in a short time he and Captain Jack began to give themselves out for persons who made it their business to restore stolen goods to their right owners, and no more.