"How do you mean?" asked Crawford.
"Why, in going to Spanish Honduras. You know the United States has no extradition treaty there under which we could bring back a man who has absconded for embezzlement or grand larceny. Burke is as safe there as if he owned the whole country."
"Is that so?" said Crawford, looking significantly at his brother Marvin, who was present.
"Yes," said Mr. Pinkerton, "it is. I only wish the fellow would come up here into British Honduras; then we might do something with him."
Here the subject was dropped.
Next Mr. Pinkerton exhibited to Crawford a sealed letter written by James G. Blaine and addressed to the chief magistrate of British Honduras, pointing to the seals of the State Department to assure Crawford of the letter's genuineness, and hinting mysteriously at the use he proposed making of this document and at the probable effect that would follow its delivery.
With this the interview closed, and Mr. Pinkerton announced his intention of going back to Punta Gorda. Crawford had practically told him to do his worst, and he had not concealed his intention of doing it. Nevertheless their relations continued outwardly pleasant, and Mr. Pinkerton was treated with the hospitality that is usual in tropical countries. He saw no sign of any disposition on the part of either of the Crawfords to do him harm, but he kept his revolvers always ready, and gave them no chance to catch him napping.
Toward evening of the second day Crawford and his brother got the launch ready, and took Mr. Pinkerton down the river back to Punta Gorda, where they said good-by. At parting Crawford made a brave show of treating the whole matter lightly. "I may see you in New York in a couple of months," he said to the detective as they shook hands.
"If you see me in New York," said Mr. Pinkerton, "you will see yourself under arrest."
On landing, Mr. Pinkerton proceeded, with all the obviousness possible, to call at the house of the British magistrate, which was so situated that Crawford from the launch could not fail to see him enter. This seems to have confirmed the impression he had been striving to create, that British Honduras, though in truth a perfect refuge for a criminal like Crawford, was none. Crawford, apparently thoroughly frightened, and thinking he had not an hour to lose, steamed back in all haste to his plantation, gathered together, as subsequently appeared, his money and other valuables, and then, under cover of night, dropped down the river again, put out to sea forthwith, and crossed the Bay of Honduras to Puerto Cortés, in Spanish Honduras, the country of all Central America in which Mr. Pinkerton preferred to have him. In short, Mr. Pinkerton's stratagem had worked perfectly.