"Yes, truly I did. Say, then, by the next letter," for he expected to be gone for some three or four months, if not longer.
"But," said he, "don't let anything deflect you from our theory, whether you succeed in that time or not. It will work out on our theory some way, at some time."
I bade my partner good by, as the ocean steamer started on her proud course out into the bay, and returned to my office, to perfect my plans in detail for the work before me, and was, as I said before, duly on my way to Ohio. My first point was Cincinnati, where, arriving safely, I set myself about becoming acquainted with names of streets, then localities, public places, names of many citizens and their business—in short, I "booked" myself up in regard to Cincinnati, in order to be "at home" whenever talking with the citizens of the village to which I was going, and who would soon be told that I was from Cincinnati.
Leaving the latter place, I made my way to the village in question, arriving there towards evening, on a lumbering stage-coach, through—literally, not "over"—the deep clay-mudded roads, and alighted at the principal hotel of the place. The night before, or rather on the morning of the same day, for it was between the hours of one and two A. M., a citizen of considerable standing had been robbed on his way home from a house a little out of the village, where he had been to watch with a sick friend, a farmer. Being relieved from watching about one o'clock, and his wife wishing to take the early stage which left at the inhospitable hour of six, on the road towards Columbus, whither she was going, he thought to return. For a week or two the robbers had ceased from their theretofore almost nightly outrages, and it was with a sort of smile of contempt that Mr. Hiram Perkins,—for that was the citizen's name, replied to an old lady nurse, as he was departing, and who asked, "Ain't you afraid of the robbers, Mr. Perkins?" "O, no, 'aunty' they won't touch me; besides, I guess they are all dead now, 'aunty.' We haven't heard 'em peep for a week or two—gone off to some better land."
But he encountered them, nevertheless, and lost four hundred dollars, and something over, which had been paid to him the evening before, at a time too late to make deposit of it in the little village bank, and which he had been foolish enough to not leave at home.
This amount of money was the largest which the robbers had yet secured. They had effected the robbery, to be sure, of some negotiable bonds of considerably greater value; but this was an extreme case, and was, of course, at the time of my arrival there the chief topic of excitement. Added to the robbery, was the fact that Mr. Perkins, who had made stout resistance, had been severely beaten, and though not fatally bruised, was lying quite feverish in bed: such was the report.
I had had a room put in order for me, neglecting to put my name on the dirty little register of the hotel, where I observed that everybody who could write, and who stepped in to the "tavern," was in the habit of writing his name, and putting after it "City" (that was the town where I was),—a custom, probably, introduced by some joker, who had been to Cincinnati, and seen names registered in that way there.
But when I came down from my room into the "office," or "bar-room," properly speaking, the young clerk said to me, "Would the stranger enter his name?" I had reflected, meanwhile, that I must see this Mr. Perkins, and had changed my original plan of proceedings a little, so I entered my name as "Dr. H. H. Hudson, Cin.," with a somewhat bold dash of the pen, and soon after found myself on the street, seeking the way to Mr. Perkins's house. While in the hotel I encountered, and had quite a long talk with one of the committee who had visited us in New York. He kept his promise, and did not "recognize" me, and perhaps he would not if he had known me. He told me the whole story of his visit to New York; what the detective said to him, and the rest of the committee; and, said he, "He was right when he said they were old burglars who were committing these outrages, for nobody but men hardened in crime could have robbed Mr. Perkins, as they did last night;" and when I went out of the tavern, after registering my name, to seek Mr. P.'s house, I encountered my committee-man. Again, as I was loitering on the street, hardly knowing what to do to learn the way to Mr. Perkins's, he had evidently looked on the register after my departure from the office or bar-room, for he accosted me.
"Ah, again! Happy to come across you again. Dr. Hudson, of Cincinnati, I hear?"
"Yes, sir," I replied; "a doctor by profession, but retired somewhat from practice."