This sounds rather boastful, considering my slight build, but I was in a heat, and it meant a whole lot to me how hard I hit him. That cowardly whelp then let out a blood curdling yell, and went down, and I realized what a fix I was in. The shot and yell must have attracted the attention of passing pedestrians, for they all gathered in front of the house. Not wishing my name to be given so much publicity in an affair of that calibre, I took the bunch of letters in my inside pocket, went over to the range and threw them in, just as a cop appeared on the scene. Seeing the state of things, the cop hit me over the head with his nightstick, and after viewing at close range planets, heavenly satellites and other decorations of the firmament, I must have collapsed; when I revived, I had on a pair of handcuffs, and the little measly runt was concluding his one-sided story.
Well, then, for the first time in my life, but not the last, as you will see later, I was arrested. Went up before the judge next A.M., and, to condense my story, the kernel of the judge's remarks to me was that I looked young and unlike a criminal, but as I had burned my letters, thereby admitting carrying a fictitious name, and was also in a strange town with no visible means of support, he would have to convict me of vagrancy, and concluded his remarks by saying that he hoped it would teach me a lesson. Thirty days! My God! don't attempt to imagine my feelings.
Well, there's a whole lot more I could tell you, but that's the principal part, and improbable as it all sounds, that's the true story of the successive links of evidence which resolved themselves into the complete chain of circumstantial evidence which kept me away from Palo Alto. I had a crumpled postal in my pocket, and penciled on it "Don't condemn me, Jack, until you hear my story." and begged a negro to mail to you for me. I addressed it to you at Palo Alto, California, but I doubt if you ever received it, as when I got out a couple of weeks later, your letter awaited me at the Post Office, forwarded from Huron, and you didn't say anything about having received the postal card.
Well, the judge visited me during my confinement, and drew out of me my real name and address, but none of my past history or future plans, and he at once surmised that I was some kid who had rambled from home and mother, so he wrote my father a lengthy letter, the tenor of which was that a boy claiming to be his son was confined in that city on a charge of vagrancy, and that while the boy was bright and intelligent, he was most assuredly on the wrong path of life. He believed that a kindly interest by my parents, manifested at this time, would work wonders in transforming me into a future good and useful citizen. He further added that his advice would be to send either my railroad ticket home, or sufficient capital to start me out on some new project, as he really believed the young man meant well. Pending an answer to his letter he would keep me apart from the toughs and general habitués of the bull pen.
Now he read this note to me, and while it appealed to my sense of humor, I couldn't imagine what would happen if he sent it, so I fairly begged him not to do so, telling him that my folks thought I was doing well, and I promised more things than I can think of, so he didn't mail the letter, but instead let me out a couple of weeks after my arrest.
When I received your letter I was much disheartened to see the Asheville post mark, as it told me that you had taken the trip across the continent for nothing at all—and also, old man, while your letter was more polite and courteous than could be expected under such circumstances, I could see between the lines all that you left unsaid and what you thought of me, and that the letter was lacking in the old time enthusiasm, but God, old man, I couldn't help it, and can never express in words the sorrow I feel in having disappointed you.
When I left the Academy, and left Reordan behind, I thought that I could never again find a friend who understood me so well, or who was understood so well by me, but a few weeks later I was pleasantly surprised, and I know up to last January you possessed a kindred feeling and had faith in me. Probably you may have some idea of the way I feel at having deadened the feeling of one whom I considered my warmest friend, yourself, when you recollect that the chief thing I have done or tried to do thus far in life is making friends, and keeping their good regards. Had I enjoyed less, I'd be at Annapolis to-day.
Every acquaintance of mine from Chicago to Pueblo, by way of Huron, has heard of you through me, but I can't say enough by letter to make me feel right, so I'll knock off, but if you'll answer at once telling me that it is all right, and mean it, you'll make me feel a whole lot better. I am fully aware of the trouble, expense and annoyance I caused you. God knows any one would have had their faith shaken, and most people would have sent me a letter that would have fairly scorched the paper. To think that after looking forward to the time for months, with the greatest of pleasure, that something unforeseen should turn up that couldn't have disappointed you more had I plotted the whole thing out in advance! And, take it from me, that I was never more disappointed. But this talk doesn't relieve my feelings.
Well, I sent home for fifty dollars, which came in due time, as I didn't wire, but wrote explaining full particulars, but, needless to say, I didn't tell them of the arrest, as I'd never had the nerve to face them again if I had. With this money I purchased a ticket to Denver, Colorado, and from Denver here. I am working as assistant timekeeper in the Open Hearth Division of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Works, but I got my foot slightly burned, and intend to quit and go to El Paso, and from there to Mexico. Almost had my ticket bought when I made the acquaintance of a man named Straight, who has a son at the Academy, and he is one of the grand high Moguls in this town, with boundless influence, both political and otherwise. He has promised me something good, so I've changed my mind, but I may change it again before long and travel.