CHAPTER XLVIII.
THE OFFICERS IN CHARGE OF FOULK STOPPED BY A LOCAL OFFICIAL AT TOPEKA—THE HABEAS CORPUS DRAWN ON THEM—A LONG FIGHT FOR THE POSSESSION OF FOULK—HE IS LIBERATED AND AGAIN ARRESTED, AND STOLEN AWAY BY SMITH AND M’KEEVER, WHO LAND HIM SAFE IN THE KEYSTONE STATE.
But all was not accomplished, and not by any means the worst of it. The officers sailed along over the Kansas Pacific quite smoothly. All went well until they reached Topeka, Kan., where the party stopped to get dinner. At this point W. D. Disbrow, the sheriff of Shawnee county, met the officers on the platform on their way to dinner. The sheriff stepped up boldly to the party, handing Mr. McKeever a paper purporting to be a writ of habeas corpus, and laying his hand on Foulk, said, “And this is my prisoner!” claiming that a requisition upon the governor of Colorado would not hold good while a prisoner was in Kansas. Here was more of the work of the Denver lawyers.
Quite a scene now ensued, and a crowd soon gathered around the platform. High words followed, and both parties persistently claimed Foulk as their prisoner. Foulk here had an opportunity to display his wrath, and he seized it at once. He appealed to the crowd around him that he was arrested illegally—had been robbed of his money—torn away from his wife—had been given no “show” whatever—was the wrong man, etc.
The prisoner was then taken before Judge Carey, who concluded to postpone the case, as he alleged, “to obtain evidence to prove that the prisoner was not Foulk,” but ostensibly for the purpose of bringing on a lawyer from Denver to Topeka, with a view of having Foulk released if possible. The sheriff’s writ claimed that the prisoner was not C. H. Foulk. Judge Carey decided that the officer who had him in charge was bound to prove that the prisoner was the identical man wanted—C. H. Foulk. But on their part the Topeka crowd had no evidence to offer that the prisoner was Curtis and not Foulk, although Mr. McKeever was ready to swear positively to Foulk’s identification. Strangely enough, Judge Carey discharged the prisoner in the very face of the fact that Mr. McKeever knew the prisoner well and was ready so to testify.
Mr. McKeever then desired Sheriff Disbrow to rearrest Foulk, and Detective Smith stepped up to the sheriff and said:
“I demand of you to arrest this man (pointing to Foulk), and hold him as a fugitive from justice from the state of Pennsylvania, until we can have time to swear out the necessary papers to hold him.”
Sheriff Disbrow, however, persistently refused to interfere.
Mr. McKeever then inquired of Judge Carey whether “Sheriff Disbrow had not the right to arrest Foulk without a warrant.” The judge shook his head.