Before the people in the saloon had recovered from
their astonishment, the detectives had taken desperate
prisoner away, and finding a livery stable near drove
to the Pinkerton headquarters. Haight and Weaver
had not gone a block before the two detectives arrested
them without any struggle, so that within one short
half hour the three principals of the great Adams
express robbery were placed behind the bars.
Jim Cummings in Pinkerton’s
Sweat-box—his confession.
All night long “Jim Cummings” walked the
narrow limits of his room— still undaunted
and fearless as of old. The gravity of his position
only made him the more daring, and when the first
beams of the morning broke through the barred window
he had recovered his usual grit and nerve, and determined
to die hard and game. Mr. Pinkerton, alone, came
into the room just as the outlaw had finished the
excellent breakfast which had been served him.
Jim looked up, and holding out his hand, in a cheery
voice said:
“Good morning, Mr. Pinkerton.”
For a second Mr. Pinkerton hardly knew what to say.
He was prepared to encounter either a desperate or
a sullen prisoner, and was somewhat taken back when
he received such a cordial greeting. It was but
a second, and fully alive to all the tricks and maneuvers
practiced by arrested criminals, he was on the qui
vive.
“Good morning, Mr. ‘Cummings’.
I trust you have had a good breakfast?”
“Oh, fair.”
“You slept well?”
“Tip-top.”
“I trust you will be able to amuse yourself
during the day.”
“I won’t amuse you, that’s certain.”
“You have been doing that for some time.”
“That’s all right. Now, what am I
here for?”
“Just so. What are you here for?”
“You’ve got the wrong man, Mr. Pinkerton.”
“Indeed?” “Just now you called me
’Mr. Cummings’.”
“I should, perhaps, have said Mr. Wittrock.”
“What did you call me ‘Cummings’
for, then.”
“As you christened yourself you ought to know.”
“I’m arrested, of course, now for what?”
“To tell the fact, Mr. Wittrock, it is because
some time last October you played a little joke on
the Adams Express Company, and they appreciated it
so highly that they hired me to find you so that they
could tell you so.”
“You dare accuse me of committing that robbery?”
“That’s about the size of it.”
“Why, man, I wasn’t within five hundred
miles of the place when it occurred.”
“Where were you?”
“I was in New Orleans.”
“Positive of that?”
“I can prove it.”
“You can?”
“Yes, I can. You go over to my coalyard
at—West Lake street, and ask my partner,
Weaver. He will tell you where I was at that time.”
