I arrived the following Sunday at Grand Rapids, Ohio, a small town on the Maumee River, and also on a canal. I put my horse up, and took dinner at the hotel; after which a very hard-looking character, claiming to have lost all his money gambling with his chums, the river men, stepped up to me in the barn and asked if I would give him money to pay for his dinner.
"Certainly," I said, handing him twenty-five cents, saying, as I did so, "I'll give you half of all I possess." He thanked me, and said:
"Say, you're a gentleman, and I'll give you a pointer: There's an officer here after you."
That was all he had to say. I then said:
"Here, help saddle and bridle my horse, quick!"
He did so, and helped me to mount, and with a long stick which he picked up, struck my horse across the hip and yelled:
"Now you're all right!" as I passed out on a full gallop. Just as I was leaving the barn I heard a voice cry out:
"Stop that man! Stop that man!"
"Go it, you son-of-a-gun!" my new friend yelled; and I did "go it."
I steered my course toward Swanton, arriving there that night, with just twenty-five cents in my pocket.