Part 9

Toward evening of the second day Crawford and his brother got the launch ready, and took Mr. Pinkerton down the river back to Punta Gorda, where they said good-by. At parting Crawford made a brave show of treating the whole matter lightly. "I may see you in New York in a couple of months," he said to the detective as they shook hands.

"If you see me in New York," said Mr. Pinkerton, "you will see yourself under arrest."

On landing, Mr. Pinkerton proceeded, with all the obviousness possible, to call at the house of the British magistrate, which was so situated that Crawford from the launch could not fail to see him enter. This seems to have confirmed the impression he had been striving to create, that British Honduras, though in truth a perfect refuge for a criminal like Crawford, was none. Crawford, apparently thoroughly frightened, and thinking he had not an hour to lose, steamed back in all haste to his plantation, gathered together, as subsequently appeared, his money and other valuables, and then, under cover of night, dropped down the river again, put out to sea forthwith, and crossed the Bay of Honduras to Puerto Cortes, in Spanish Honduras, the country of all Central America in which Mr. Pinkerton preferred to have him. In short, Mr. Pinkerton's stratagem had worked perfectly.

Mr. Pinkerton's reason for wishing to get Crawford into Spanish Honduras was not because the treaty arrangements were more favorable there than in British Honduras, but because the Pinkerton Agency enjoyed unusual personal relations with the Honduras government. Several years before, when President Bogram had in contemplation the federation of Central American States under one government, he had applied to the Pinkerton Agency for reliable detectives for secret-service work. In consequence of this the present head of the Honduras secret force was no other than a former Pinkerton employee who had been recommended by the New York office to the Honduras government, and upon whom Mr. Pinkerton knew he could rely absolutely. Another man equally disposed to favor him was Mr. Bert Cecil, a member of the cabinet, and at the head of the telegraph service, and thus in a position to render most valuable service in the apprehension of Crawford.

As soon as Mr. Pinkerton learned of Crawford's flight, he hurried in pursuit, crossing the bay to Livingston, in Guatemala. In so doing he risked his life, first by putting out to sea in a little dory, and then by trusting his safety to a treacherous Carib boatman, who, when they were several miles out, evinced a strong disposition to take possession of the detective's overcoat, in order, as he explained with a cunning look, to turn its silk lining into a pair of trousers. At this, Mr. Pinkerton carelessly produced his revolver, which had a quieting effect upon the fellow, and the voyage was completed in safety. But soon after landing Mr. Pinkerton suffered an attack of fever, and being warned by the doctors to return to a Northern latitude, he got the government machinery in motion for the apprehension of Crawford, had photographs of the former bank messenger spread broadcast through the country, and then having cabled the New York bureau to send responsible detectives to take his place, he sailed for New Orleans.

Mr. Pinkerton was succeeded in Central America by detective George H. Hotchkiss, one of the best men in the country, who arrived in Balize on the 18th of March. A telegram from Pinkerton's former employee, now chief of the secret police in Honduras, informed him that Crawford had been seen in San Pedro, Spanish Honduras, on the previous Saturday, and was being closely pursued by Spanish soldiers accompanied by Pinkerton men. Hotchkiss sailed at once for Puerto Cortes, where he learned from the American vice-consul, Dr. Ruez, that Crawford had left San Pedro hastily the previous Monday night. On further investigation the detective discovered that a San Francisco bully and former prize-fighter, "Mike" Neiland, had called at Crawford's boarding-house on Monday, and warned him that detectives were pursuing him from Puerto Cortes on a hand-car. Neiland had pretended to be Crawford's friend, and said he would keep him out of the hands of the detectives. Crawford, very much frightened, grabbed up some of his luggage and left the house with Neiland. It was generally believed that Neiland had designs on Crawford's money, and would not hesitate to kill him, if need were, in order to get it.

Hotchkiss immediately requested Mr. Bert Cecil, at Tegucigalpa, the capital, to cover all telegraphic points, and, if possible, have Crawford and his companion arrested on some trivial charge. The day after he reached San Pedro, on March 22, he received a telegram saying that Crawford and Neiland had been arrested and taken before the governor at Santa Barbara. They had been searched, and about thirty-two thousand dollars had been found on Crawford's person. The money was in old and worn bills that in every way resembled those in the stolen package. Whether they were the identical bills or not it was impossible to say, as the bank had not recorded the numbers.

On receipt of this news, Hotchkiss, accompanied by Jack Hall, a guide, set out across the country for Santa Barbara. The journey was accomplished, but only after the most terrible suffering and many privations and dangers. Moreover, the fever got its deadly clutches upon detective Hotchkiss; and when he had finally dragged himself into Santa Barbara, he cabled the New York office: "Crawford and money held for extradition. Am sick. Cannot remain. Coming on steamer Tuesday. My associate takes charge."

Before sailing for New Orleans detective Hotchkiss had an interview with Crawford, in the presence of the Spanish officials, and obtained from him a written confession of his guilt. While admitting that he had been a party to the robbery, the absconder tried to lessen his own crime by declaring that the plan to plunder the bank had been suggested to him by two men, named Brown and Bowen, whom he had met accidentally on a railway-train in New York, and with whom he had afterward become very friendly. These men had taken him to Brown's house on Thirty-eighth Street, somewhere between Eighth and Ninth avenues (Crawford could not locate the place more precisely), and introduced him to a fine-looking woman presented as Mrs. Brown, who was also in the conspiracy. They told him that he was earning very little money for a man in such a responsible position, and that he might easily make a fortune if he would put his interests in their hands and be guided by their advice.

The outcome of several conversations was a plan to get possession of a valuable money package on some day when Crawford should know a large sum was to be sent away from the bank. He claimed that on the day of the robbery one of his fellow-conspirators, Bowen, followed behind himself and Earle after they entered the Adams express offices, and managed to substitute a bogus package for the real one while the two messengers were going up the stairs. He did not make this attempt until he saw the bank detective McDougal turn back up Broadway. Crawford said that he managed it so as to precede Earle in going up the stairs, which gave Bowen, who was standing at the first turn, in the shadow, an opportunity to open the satchel and quickly make the substitution. Crawford declared that the conspirators gave him only twenty-five hundred dollars as his share of the booty, although promising him more. This sum he put in two envelops and sent to his aunt, the one to whom he afterward intrusted the package supposed to contain gloves.

Crawford stated further that Brown and Bowen, having been forced to flee the country, sent him word from Paris, some time later, in a letter written by Mrs. Brown, that the greater part of the stolen money had been buried in a flower-bed in the southeast corner of a yard on West Thirty-eighth Street, and asked him to dig it up and send it to them. A remarkable fact in this connection is that the yard referred to on West Thirty-eighth Street belonged to the house of the friend and benefactor with whom Crawford was living at the time of the robbery.

Crawford claimed to have carried out these instructions, and deposited the package of money taken from the flower-bed in the safe-deposit vaults in the Fifth Avenue Hotel building, where, as a matter of fact, he was known to have rented a box. He gave as his reason for not sending the money to Paris that he was in trouble himself, being under constant surveillance, and thought it best to keep the money secreted for the time. He admitted that he had carried this money with him to Honduras, and that it was the same found on his person by the detectives. By his description of Brown and Bowen, the former was a man about twenty-five years old, of slight build and light complexion, while the latter was ten years older, two or three inches taller, with a sandy mustache and very fat hands. Mrs. Brown Crawford described as about twenty-five years old, a blonde, with regular features. He had no idea what had become of these people since he left America, having had no further communication with them. None of the alleged conspirators has ever been found, and they are believed to be purely mythical.

Detective Hotchkiss also had an interview with "Mike" Neiland, Crawford's companion in flight, who described his first meeting with Crawford at his boarding-house in San Pedro, and acknowledged that he had deliberately frightened Crawford into running away by his story of the pursuing detectives. He described their adventures and hardships in trying to escape over the rough country, the difficulties they experienced in buying mules, their sufferings from exposure in the swamps, and finally their capture by the soldiers. Neiland said that Crawford gave him three thousand dollars in fifty-dollar bills, and also allowed him to carry, a part of the time, a large package wrapped in oil-cloth paper and sewed up tightly. Crawford had told him to throw this package away rather than let any one capture it; for, he said, it contained money which would send him to prison if found upon him.

As they pushed along in their flight, Crawford declared repeatedly that he would put an end to his life rather than be taken prisoner; and when the soldiers surrounded them he drew his revolver and tried to blow his brains out. One of the soldiers, however, was too quick for him, and struck the weapon out of his hand. After the capture Crawford vainly tried to bribe the guards to let him escape, offering them as much as ten thousand dollars. When the large package was opened, it was found to contain bundles of bills sewed together with black thread, and with about a dozen rubber bands wrapped around them, and a stout covering of buckskin under the oiled paper. The money amounted to thirty-two thousand five hundred dollars, all in United States bills--fives, tens, twenties, fifties, and hundreds, but mostly fives. Ultimately the money was returned to the American Exchange Bank.

When organizing the pursuit of Crawford, detective Hotchkiss had arranged with the Honduras government that any letters and telegrams that might come addressed to the absconder should be delivered to him. Several letters were thus secured from the young man about town in New York who had befriended Crawford so constantly in the past, and who seemed now disposed to stand by him even in adversity and disgrace. The letters contained counsel and reproaches, and seemed to indicate that relations of unusual familiarity had existed between the two men. Besides these letters, two cablegrams were intercepted from the same source, both being sent through an intermediary. The first was dated March 15, 1890, and read: "Tell Crawford go back. Papers bluff. No treaty exists." The second, sent two days later, read: "Inform Crawford will meet him in Puerto Cortes."

It is needless to say that the young man did not carry out his intention of joining Crawford in Honduras, for the same mail which would have brought him Crawford's reply carried the startling news that his protege and friend was under arrest in Santa Barbara, a self-confessed bank robber.

The government of Honduras consented, thanks to their friendly relations with the Pinkertons, to deliver Crawford over to one of the representatives of the agency, and superintendent E. S. Gaylor, who had meantime replaced detective Hotchkiss, took him in charge. A guard of Spanish soldiers brought the prisoner to Puerto Cortes, where he was placed in a hotel pending his transfer to a vessel sailing for the United States. Superintendent Gaylor himself was present to see that everything was managed properly, and he was seconded in his oversight by the former Pinkerton employee, the head of the secret police in Honduras. The final arrangements had been made, the government having taken advantage of a law authorizing the expulsion of "pernicious foreigners" in order to get rid of Crawford. The superintendent had actually taken passage for himself and Crawford, and selected berths, on an American vessel that was to sail on the morning of May 2, 1890; but the night before Crawford made his escape from the hotel, going without the money, which remained in the detective's keeping. How he escaped is still a matter of conjecture. The hotel stood on the water's edge, and from a balcony to which Crawford had access he may have managed to spring down to a wall built on piles. From there he may have reached the hotel yard at the back, and escaped over one of the picket fences that separated the hotel from the adjoining property. There is also a possibility that the Spanish soldiers were bribed; but this has never been proved, and is scarcely probable, as Crawford at the time of his escape had not more than seventy-five dollars in Honduras bills in his possession.

During the following days and weeks untiring efforts were made to recapture him. The swamps were searched for miles, and soldiers were sent out in all directions. Mr. Gaylor believed that Crawford succeeded in making his escape into Guatemala, which was only thirty miles distant. He was undoubtedly assisted in his escape by the fact that people in the surrounding region sympathized strongly with him and would have done anything in their power to conceal him from his pursuers. At any rate, the man was never recovered.

Seven years have passed since Crawford's escape, and all this time he has been left undisturbed in Central America, where he has been frequently seen by people who know him, and where he seems to be thriving. At last accounts he and his brother were engaged in business on one of the islands in the Mosquito Reservation of Nicaragua, where they were regarded as dangerous men by the government, likely to incite revolution. So strong was this feeling on the part of the Nicaraguan officials that some years ago advances were made to the United States government to have Crawford surrendered, the Nicaraguan officials declaring that they would gladly give him up if a demand for his extradition was made by the proper authorities in Washington. For some reason the demand has never been made, and probably never will be.

Immediately after Crawford had made confession, the American Exchange Bank, realizing that there was no longer any doubt that the robbery was committed by one of its employees, voluntarily refunded to the Adams Express Company the forty-one thousand dollars that had previously been paid to it by the company, together with interest thereon for two years, and a large part of the expenses. Therefore the only complainant in the case now available would be the bank officials, who, for some reason, have seen fit to let the matter drop.

Mr. Pinkerton's theory of the way in which this robbery was committed is that Crawford had an accomplice who had previously prepared the bogus package, and who, by previous appointment, was standing on the stairs in the express office when the two messengers arrived. It has always been a question in Mr. Pinkerton's mind whether the old man Dominie Earle told the exact truth in his testimony before the bank officials. Not that he suspected Earle of having been implicated in the crime, but he has wondered whether Earle might not have been simply negligent to the extent of leaving Crawford in sole possession of the valise at some time after they entered the office. There is no doubt that Earle was very anxious to catch a four-o'clock train at one of the New Jersey ferries, in order to get home early. He may, in his haste, have allowed Crawford to go up-stairs with the valise unaccompanied.

This would explain how Crawford found opportunity to open the valise and make substitution of the bogus for the genuine package. Assuming that the accomplice was standing at a turn of the stairs, which are winding and rather dusky, it is perfectly conceivable that such a change of packages might have been effected with scarcely a moment's delay.

But consenting that Earle told the exact truth, he admitted that he lingered behind Crawford a little in ascending the stairs, and in so doing he may have furnished sufficient opportunity for the substitution. An old man going up rather steep stairs naturally bends his head forward to relieve the ascent, and in such position he might fail to see what a man close in front of him even was doing. The trouble with this theory is that it supposes the label on the bogus package to have been a forgery.

There is still another theory suggested by Mr. Pinkerton to account for the presence of the bogus money package in the valise when the two messengers reached the counter of the receiving department. It is that Crawford's confederate had provided himself with a second valise, similar in all respects to the one used by the bank, and that in this had been placed the bogus package with a forged label, making the substitution a matter of merely changing valises, which could have been accomplished in a second. It has also been suggested that Crawford might have managed the whole scheme himself, by having prepared a valise like the one he carried daily, arranged with two compartments, in one of which was placed the genuine package received from the paying-teller at the bank, while out of the other compartment was taken at the express office a bogus package previously placed there. What makes it the more reasonable to suppose that Crawford accomplished the theft single-handed is the fact that when arrested in Honduras the bulk of the stolen money was found on his person, while it was known that, in addition to the thirty-two thousand dollars then recovered, he had previously spent considerable sums in various ways. His voyage, for instance, must have been expensive; and it was found that he had given at various times to members of his family sums ranging from twenty to fifty dollars. This would have left out of the original forty-one thousand dollars a very meager remuneration for a confederate.

Perhaps the most reasonable explanation of the robbery lies in the assumption that Dominie Earle, honest, but simple-minded, did not go up-stairs at all with Crawford, but left him at the foot of the stairs, influenced by his eagerness to get home. Granting this supposition, what would have been easier than for Crawford, left alone at the foot of the stairs, to have turned back with the valise and gone into the back room of some neighboring saloon, or other convenient place, where he could manipulate the label and substitute the bogus package? There is reason to think that the bogus package had been prepared weeks before, which would have accounted in a measure for its worn and slovenly appearance. The time occupied in doing all this need not have been over fifteen minutes, which would not have been noticed at the bank, especially as the robbery occurred after banking hours. It is highly improbable, however, that Crawford could have accomplished the substitution on the stairs of the express office; for, while these are winding and somewhat in the shadow, they are by no means dark, and are plainly in view of clerks and officials who are constantly passing. Besides that, Crawford could not have carried the dummy package concealed about his person without attracting attention, for the original package was quite bulky, being about twenty inches long, twenty inches wide, and fourteen inches thick. The bogus package was not quite so thick, and more oblong, but could not easily have been hidden under a man's coat. Finally, even supposing Crawford did carry the bogus package with him in some manner, he would never have dared to expose himself to almost certain detection by cutting off the label from the genuine package, pasting it on the bogus package, placing the latter in the valise, and hiding the genuine one in his clothes--and doing all this on the busy stairs of an express office where at that hour of the day a dozen men are going up and down every minute.

The sum of all these theories is, however, that, in spite of the fact that the author of the robbery is known and the bulk of the money has been recovered, the manner of the robbery is to this day a mystery.

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End of Project Gutenberg's True Detective Stories, by Cleveland Moffett