I grew tired of this life after a few months and suggested to Spokane that he go up to the Canadian line and lift the plant of watches and rings. The burglary cry had died out and I had arranged to sell them all where they would never rise up to accuse me. This trip suited him, as it would give him a chance to visit his people in Spokane, Washington, and it pleased me to have him go because I didn’t want to take chances with the watches which were all numbered and easy of identification. I had left them behind me rather than carry the bulky package around and chance losing the more valuable stones because of it. I gave him a diagram of the spot where the plant was, supplied him with tickets and traveling expenses, and sent him on his way with instructions to express the parcel to the San Francisco express office, value it at twenty-five dollars, and tell the express agent it contained samples of ore.
To make everything safe and sure, I further instructed him to stand at the depot when the train was in and make sure the parcel went into the express car, then to take a train the next day and come back to San Francisco by an indirect route which would protect him in case anything happened to the package en route. I put in a couple of anxious weeks, but he showed up in due time with the good news that he had located the junk without trouble and sent it along exactly as he had promised. He called for it at the express office the next day, but it hadn’t arrived. Not caring to make too much fuss over a package valued at twenty-five dollars, we waited a few days before he went back for it. The express office was in Montgomery Street then, and I stood in the Palace Hotel entrance where I could look across the street and see him showing the receipt and arguing with the clerks. His willingness to go to the office every day convinced me he was on the square. He had a receipt for the package; I assumed it had gone astray.
We talked the thing over and decided there was nothing to be afraid of. If the parcel had been seized by the police he would have been pinched at the express office. I began to get suspicious after a week and was for abandoning the whole thing, but Spokane insisted on making another call. From my spot across the street I saw two men fall on him when he spoke to the clerk and knew he was arrested.
I went straight to my room, got everything and moved to another, where I sat down and tried to figure out what had happened and what to do. His arrest was a mystery, but it was plain to me that I must either jump out on him or stay and help. I was clean, there wasn’t a scrap of evidence against me. If I deserted him that might cause him to squawk, and with his testimony they could convict me if they got me. I knew the police would accuse him of the burglary and that he could and would convince them in an hour that he was in San Francisco when it occurred. That would start them on a hunt for another man, and that would bring them to me, for I had been seen with him daily for months. I saw I would be picked up; I saw they could prove I was in the town where the burglary was committed, and at the time. But they could get no further. The evidence to convict me was not in existence. I could not be convicted without Spokane’s testimony.
I was reasonably certain he would protect me if I protected him. I sent and found that the police had not been to the room I deserted; that meant he was standing up. I decided to stay and take a pinch and have the business settled while I had money to fight. After making this decision I cleaned up a few odds and ends of jewelry, put them away in my safety box, and left the key in a secure place. I took a thousand dollars in hundred-dollar bills and secreted it in different parts of my clothes. The pawn tickets had all been destroyed the minute we got them. I felt perfectly secure, and went openly around the hangouts waiting for the blow to fall.
It came in a hurry, and to my surprise I was put in the cell occupied by Spokane. I learned later that the cell had some kind of listening arrangement, but we did not discuss our troubles. We were both “on the small book,” which meant incommunicado, but I promised a trusty prisoner a dollar if he would get word out to an attorney I had in mind. He was one of the leading criminal lawyers at that time, and had us both out to talk to him the next morning. The evening papers carried the story of my arrest and of the burglary. The attorney had read it, and seeing it was a case of considerable magnitude he came at once. He did not believe in any fat fees being held incommunicado.
I gave him a substantial retainer and asked him to find out what we were charged with and what we were being held on. Spokane had got barely an hour’s sleep at one time in the three days he had been in. Policemen and detectives took turn about questioning him, trying to wear him down to the weakening point. They now started on me, threatening, blustering, cajoling, wheedling, and promising. I made no statement except that I was innocent. There was no local interest in the case, and we were not mistreated. Captain Lindheimer, long dead now, was in charge of the city prison. He frowned on the beating-up of prisoners, and there was very little of it done when he was in charge. He was a very humane man, and of all the prisoners that passed through his hands I don’t recall ever hearing one with a harsh word for him.
Our attorney had influence enough to get our meals sent from the outside; we bought clean, new blankets from the head trusty and plenty of opium, which we ate. Spokane’s wife was permitted to visit us, the police probably figuring they could follow her to something that would convict us. She had not been told anything, knew nothing, and could do us no harm.
Out of my thousand dollars I got in with, I saw to it that she was taken care of. This was only fair to Spokane, and helped him to help me by keeping his mouth shut.
The attorney could learn nothing except that we were being held on telegrams. “This is soft,” he said. “They can’t hold you on that. I’ll take you out on a writ of habeas corpus.”