"Well," he continued, "these people won't identify me and I will make your bondsmen pay dearly for this outrage."
"We'll see about this," I replied. "I can't be mistaken. I have been a deputy sheriff for the past two years, and I have arrested two house thieves and they were convicted, so I can not be mistaken."
"Well, you are very badly mistaken now," he answered, and with this he stopped talking and seemed to be at ease, as he knew he could not be identified at Vermillion, and felt sure that he would be released. In due time we arrived at East St. Louis, and I explained to him that I did not care to proceed to Vermillion that night, as I had some little business to attend to in St. Louis, and therefore, I proposed to come over to the city, remain over night and take the first train out in the morning to Vermillion. He seemed perfectly satisfied. I brought him across the river and took him to the Four Courts and turned him over to Major McDonough, who was then Chief of Police of St. Louis. I had known Chief McDonough for years. He locked Watts up, and I, of course, had his meals taken in to him and had him well cared for. The next morning we took an early train for Indianapolis over what is now a part of the Big Four system. We got along very nicely until we reached the Wabash river, which separates Illinois from Indiana, when Watts suddenly turned to me and in a loud and excited manner said, "Where in h—l are you taking me? You haven't told me the truth."
"No," I replied, "I did not tell you the truth about where I am taking you, but I will do so now. I am taking you to Brookville, Pennsylvania."
"Why didn't you tell me this in the first place?" he asked.
I replied, "My reason for not telling you this in the first place was, that after I had located you, as I supposed, at Paducah, Kentucky, I reported the facts to Sheriff Steele of Jefferson County and asked him to apply for the proper papers so that you might be taken back to Pennsylvania. Sheriff Steele obtained the papers and insisted on bringing a posse of men to assist in your capture, to which I objected and I told him that I did not think it necessary for anybody to come after you, but he and myself. He reluctantly consented to accompany me. He had the papers and came as far as St. Louis. The weather was very warm and when we arrived in St. Louis, Steele was very feverish and complained of being sick, and was afraid that he was taking typhoid fever, and insisted on returning to Pennsylvania immediately, which he did. He insisted on me going back with him, but I told him that I was going to get hell before I returned. He left me and returned home."
"Why, he wasn't sick at all, he was just afraid of me," said Watts. "He was afraid to meet me, for he knew if I saw him I would kill him. I stood off Steele and seventeen of his men, all armed, in Brookville once. Those fellows are all afraid of me. So you came down here to get me yourself? Well, you haven't any papers for my arrest, have you?"
"No," I said, "I haven't any papers. I have nothing but you."
"Suppose I object to going any farther with you," he remarked.
"In that case," I replied, "I would simply have to have you locked up and wait until the papers arrive. They are all made out, therefore you can raise all the objections you like. I am a deputy sheriff, and I could have locked you up in Illinois, but I did not know what that red-headed fellow and your other associates in Shawneetown would do, and not wanting to be bothered with them, I decided to just bring you right along."