“But as for the post-office inspectors,” he went on, “I believe they are telling the truth. I have known both of them personally for several years. They are square, honest, fearless men. Not even a politician as influential as Boss Coggswell could persuade them to do anything crooked. I am thoroughly convinced as to that. If they say they found the pawn ticket in Sheridan’s trunk, I am quite sure that such was the case.”
“Then how did it get there?” demanded Dallas. “You say you believe in Owen’s innocence.”
“Somebody else put it there before the inspectors visited the house—somebody who is in this shameful conspiracy to railroad our unfortunate young friend to jail,” declared the lawyer grimly. “And I believe I know already who that somebody was.”
“You do!” exclaimed the girl eagerly.
“Yes. As I presume you are aware, Miss Worthington, Sheridan is not the only letter carrier who occupies a room at Mrs. O’Brien’s boarding house. A young man named Smithers, also employed at Branch X Y, lives at the same address. He has the bedroom next to Owen’s. He is a member of the Samuel J. Coggswell Association,[Pg 46] and a close friend of Jake Hines, Coggswell’s confidential man.”
“Ah!” exclaimed Dallas breathlessly. “Then, of course, it was he who put the ticket in Owen’s trunk. He could easily have entered the room when Owen wasn’t there, and slipped the piece of pasteboard through a crack without opening the trunk at all.”
“Yes,” agreed the lawyer; “doubtless that is how the thing was done.”
He leaned back in his chair, and gazed up at the ceiling meditatively. “The whole wretched plot is perfectly clear to me,” he said. “I can see every step those rascals took. First they got a man to send that registered package from a downtown post office—a liquor dealer named Warren. I met him this afternoon, and one look at the fellow served to convince me that he is crooked. The box was empty, of course, when he sent it; there was no watch inside. The package was addressed to a saloon keeper on Sheridan’s route, and they timed the mailing of it so to make sure that it would arrive at Branch X Y during our friend’s tour.
“Then, at half past three,” he continued, “while Sheridan was on his way to deliver the package, one of Coggswell’s emissaries—probably Jake Hines—went to pawnshop on the letter carrier’s route, and pledged a watch—the watch which the perjurer, Warren, swears was in the registered package when he mailed it. The pawn ticket is next handed to Carrier Smithers, who is instructed to put it into Sheridan’s trunk, so that it will be there when the post-office inspectors come to search the room.”
“But why, if the inspectors are as honest as you say,” demanded Dallas, “should they so quickly have suspected Owen? Why should they have gone straight to his room and opened his trunk? Doesn’t that look significant?”