Hines would have been more touched by this unselfishness on the part of his chief if he had not observed that the latter’s ears were wagging furiously while he spoke.
CHAPTER XIV.
AN INFLUENTIAL FRIEND.
As Jake Hines tremulously informed Boss Coggswell, the jury had brought in a verdict of "Not guilty" in the case of Owen Sheridan. That one little slip on the part of the conspirators—their failure to put on the package sufficient stamps to cover the weight of the watch it was supposed to contain—enabled Judge Lawrence to convince the jurors that his client was the victim of a "frame-up."
In his summing up he showed how the wholesale liquor dealer, William Warren, could easily have deceived the two reputable business men who testified that they had seen the watch placed in the package. He pointed out that both of these witnesses had admitted that during the walk to the post office the package had been in Warren’s pocket. How simple for him to have had a duplicate package in the same pocket, and hand it in at the registry window instead of the box which contained the watch.
The jury deliberated less than ten minutes before they acquitted the accused carrier. Later that day the pawnbroker’s clerk, after a long and grueling examination, broke down, and confessed that he had committed perjury when he had sworn that Owen had pledged the watch.
Carrier Sheridan had not been in the pawnshop at all that day, he admitted. The watch had been pawned by Bill Warren himself, who had offered him a hundred dollars to swear that Owen had conducted the transaction. As he knew the letter carrier by sight, it had been an easy matter for the pawnbroker’s clerk to pick him[Pg 44] out unhesitatingly from a group of twenty other carriers, and thus satisfy the post-office inspectors that he was telling the truth.
This was not the only confession extracted that day. Warren, the wholesale liquor dealer, realizing that he was "in bad," decided to make things easier for himself by "blowing the whole game." He swore that he had done this thing at the request of Jake Hines. There were certain reasons why he could not afford to lose Hines’ good will, and when the politician had come to him and asked him to do this favor, he had not dared to refuse.
Carrier Smithers, possessing more nerve than these other conspirators, could not be made to admit that he had placed the pawn ticket in Sheridan’s trunk. He preserved his taciturn, defiant air throughout the examination, and came from the ordeal smilingly triumphant.
Judge Lawrence and Owen Sheridan were very well satisfied, however, with the result of their efforts. The latter grasped his client’s hand fervently, and said:
"Let me congratulate you, Sheridan. Your own cleverness has saved you from jail and enabled us to turn the tables on our enemies. We wouldn’t have stood a ghost of a show if it hadn’t been for that happy thought of yours about the stamps on the package.