What occurred on that night beyond that which I have already described, or how the investigation terminated, I am confident the reader will not insist upon knowing, when I assure him that there are special reasons, affecting public as well as private interests, why I should make no further disclosures.
Though this was not the last night which I have spent in post-offices for similar purposes, yet I have never repeated the experiment under circumstances requiring quite so severe restraints, and such abridgment of personal liberty.
CHAPTER IX.
Throwing off the Cars—Fiendish Recklessness—The Boot-Tracks—A Scamp among the Printers—Obstruction removed—A Ruse—The Boots secured—"Big Jobs"—The Trial—Unreliable Witness—A Life-Sentence.
In the narrations of mail robberies which we have thus far given, their perpetrators, though bold and unscrupulous, have not often plotted the destruction of human life in order to further their projects. But in the case we are about briefly to relate, murder on a large scale was coolly contemplated for the sake of the facilities which would be afforded to the plunderers of the mail, by the confusion, distress, and preoccupation which necessarily follow the throwing of cars from a railroad track. The certain destruction of property and the probable loss of life which would be caused by the successful execution of their plans, were nothing to these atrocious scoundrels, as long as by these means plunder might be brought within their grasp.
Rather more than a year ago, on a certain day in March, the locomotive of a mail train upon one of the Western railroads was thrown from the track by a "T" rail, which was placed with one end against a tie, so that the other, projecting somewhat upward, was struck by the engine. This occurred near a city in one of the Western States. No one on the train was injured, and whoever placed the obstruction failed in accomplishing his purpose, if that was to rob the mail.
No person was particularly suspected of the deed, but tracks made by a boot of peculiar shape, with rows of large nails around the soles and heels, were found in the soft clay in the neighborhood of the spot, and an impression of them was taken for future reference. On the same day the Superintendent of the road received a letter, of which the following is a copy.
Adrian, March 7, 1854.