"So fast did the friendship between Will Wood and myself become that he would show me his letters. Among those he showed, I remember one from Scott Jackson, a young man from Greencastle, who is in Cincinnati attending a dental college.
"In this letter Jackson confided to his chum, Will Wood, that he, Jackson and Pearl Bryan had been too intimate, that she had loved not wisely, but too well, and as a result he had betrayed her, that Pearl would soon become a mother, and asked Wood's help in this matter.
"He admitted his intimacy with Pearl, and his responsibility for her present condition. He quoted recipes calculated to prevent the evil results of their indiscretion, and asked Wood to get them and give them to Pearl.
"Wood did this, as he said he was willing to do anything he could for Jackson and especially for Pearl, who was Wood's second cousin.
"These drugs however did not have the desired effect of reversing the laws of nature.
"One letter, I remember was in answer to one which Wood had written to Jackson, informing him that Pearl Bryan was showing the effects of her indiscretion and intimacy with Jackson, and telling him that the recipes sent by him had been furnished by Wood.
"Jackson regretted that his recipes had failed but said something must be done and suggested that the girl be sent to Cincinnati, stating that he could arrange to have an abortion performed on her.
"Wood told me afterward that Pearl had gone to Cincinnati to have a criminal operation performed, and had told her parents she was going to Indianapolis to visit friends. She had money with her, sufficient to cover any expenses she might incur in such an undertaking."
He then told of Fred Bryan the brother of Pearl, telegraphing to Indianapolis inquiring about Pearl and receiving an answer that she had not been there.
It was midnight when the detectives heard of this and went to the house of Mr. Spivy, of Louis & Hays, and got him to go to the shoe store with them. On arriving there the books of the firm were again examined and the name of Pearl Bryan was found on them, and the fact that she had bought a pair of No. 3 shoes was found. In all their scrutiny of the books this fact had escaped the detectives and shoe dealers.