The following evening the movements of the suspected person were again watched, the Agent having a better knowledge respecting the exact nature and value of a portion of the contents of the mail bags which were to be forwarded at that time.
Upon this occasion, the train was "on time," and the carrier a little later than usual, so the mails were placed directly upon the barrow, and wheeled by the baggage-master to an obscure part of the depot, more remote from observation, and less in the way of passers, than that where they were carried the previous night. After remaining there a short time, he rolled the truck and its valuable load back to the usual spot, in readiness for the train.
This strange manœuvre indicated still another and a bolder operation, but the probabilities were that he had been foiled in any attempt he might have designed to make, by a person whom I saw following him into his dark retreat to make application for baggage, as I supposed, for they both entered the baggage room, and soon came out, the stranger with a valise in his hand. This contre-temps excited in my mind no very amiable feelings toward its innocent cause, for I had concluded to bring the affair to a crisis at once, should the telegraph report anything missing from the mails. But the dispatch received that evening was, "All right," which confirmed my belief that my plans and those of the baggage-master had been frustrated by the stranger.
Another train from the opposite direction, and bringing mails for delivery at this point, were due at a later hour, and as there had also been losses from those mails, I decided to wait and see what usage they received on their arrival, which, owing to heavy snow-drifts somewhere on the road, was delayed till near midnight.
When the train came in and the baggage was disposed of, the mails were all carried to the baggage room instead of to the post-office, and, after putting out the gas-lights about the depot, the faithful baggage-master returned to his apartment.
Through a small swinging window designed for ventilation, opening into this room near the top, I could see a faint light, and from its unsteady motions, which showed that the lamp from which it proceeded was in the hand of some one moving it in various directions, I concluded that the occupant of the room was rifling the mails.
This was an exciting moment. My first impulse was to proceed at once to the door, demand admittance, and charge him on the spot with the crime of which I suspected him. But a slight distrust of my physical ability to cope with him single-handed in case of resistance, which would almost certainly follow if my suspicions were correct; and the lateness of the hour, rendering it improbable that I could obtain aid should it be necessary; these considerations prevented me from carrying out my first intention, and when the unconscious object of my scrutiny put out his light and left the depot, I went in an opposite direction to my quarters, determined, however, to give him but one more chance to continue his depredations.
The next night he robbed his last mail bag.
Obtaining a private interview with the Superintendent of the rail road, I for the first time laid the facts before him, for the purpose of securing some assistance in the prosecution of my plans which he only could render. I wished to provide a place of concealment in that retired part of the depot where the mails had been taken on the preceding evening; and as empty cars were frequently left standing over night upon some of the unoccupied tracks, it was arranged to leave a car near the place mentioned, for my exclusive occupancy. From the "loop-hole" of this "retreat" I could determine with some accuracy the nature of such mysterious movements as I had before witnessed in that vicinity.
Lest the baggage room should be chosen this time as the scene of operation, and thus my plans be defeated, a discreet friend was stationed near that point about the time that the mails were brought over from the office, in order to "head off" the suspected functionary.