dusty office, the
little bronze horse standing before him on the desk and the branches
of the trees outside casting flickering shadows upon the walls and
bookcases. Canny old man! He had never put his neck in a noose!
I envied him his quiet life among his books and the well-deserved
respect and honor that the world accorded him.

Ruminating in this strain, I threaded my way through the crowd in
Court Street, and was about to return to my hotel, when to my utter
horror I beheld Hawkins, in all his regalia, being marched down
the hill between two business-like-looking persons, who were
unmistakably officers of police. He walked dejectedly and had lost
all his bravado. There was no blinking the fact that in my absence
he had managed somehow to stumble into the hands of the guardians
of the law and was now in process of being transported back to New
York.

For a moment my circulation stopped abruptly and a clammy moisture
broke out upon my back and forehead. Unostentatiously I slipped
into a cigar store and allowed the trio to pass me by. So the jig
was up! Back I must go, after my fruitless nightmare with the
wretch, to consult with my partner as to what was now to be done.
I reached the city late that evening, but not before I had read in
the evening papers a full account of the apprehension of the
fugitive, including my own part in the escape; and it now appeared
that the police had been fully cognizant of all our doings, including
the manner of our abduction of Hawkins from our office. They had,
under the instructions of the district attorney, simply permitted
us to carry out our plan in order to use the same as evidence
against us at the proper time, and had followed us every step of
the way to Worcester and on our drive to Methuen.

My heart almost failed me as I thought of how foolish I had been
to undertake this desperate journey myself, instead of sending some
one in my place for by so doing I had stamped myself as vitally
interested in my client's escape. Fearful to go to my own home,
lest I should find myself in the hands of the police, I spent the
night in a lodging-house on the water-front, wondering whether
Hawkins had already made his confession to the district attorney
in return for a promise of immunity; for I well knew that such a
promise would be forthcoming and that Hawkins was the last man in
the world to neglect the opportunity to save himself at our expense.

Next morning I telephoned G