He thereupon sat down again and dictated a second statement to Rittenhouse, which, while it possessed a certain element of truth, was far from being a recital of all the facts as I knew them to exist. I could see very plainly that it was not the intention of Nicholls to come through with the goods unless he were forced into a corner where there was no escape for him by any other loophole; so I thereupon requested Burns to let me handle him for a while, and put him through the preliminary paces, as it were.
Taking him down the hallway, I lined him up against the wall and proceeded to read the riot act to him in great shape, with the result that when Nicholls returned, he was ready to cough up everything. His story, as embodied in the affidavit which he afterwards signed, was as follows:
"About the time those lands were being taken up for C. A. Smith, through his agent. Fred A. Kribs, of Portland, I learned that the Mealey brothers were paying $50 each for persons to take up claims, and as I thought that I couldn't make money any easier than that, I called on the Mealeys and asked them if I could get in on a claim, and if so, what would they pay me.
"Jud Mealey told me that he expected to take a party of fellows to Oregon City the next day to file on some timber claims, and if I wanted to go along I could do so; that he was paying the expenses of the trip and the filing fees, and at the time of making final proof, would furnish the money for that purpose also, and at the same time would pay me a bonus of $50 for a deed to the claim. I thought that would be all right, and concluded to join the party, and the next day we all went together to the Oregon City Land Office. Those in the party besides myself were Farmer Malone, Thomas Burgett, Henry R. Slavens, J. Gilliland, George W. Slavens and O. J. Mealey.
"At Oregon City we filed on the claims, the descriptions of the land being given us prior to our arrival there by Jud Mealey. When we got through there, we returned to Sweet Home, and about six weeks after that, the date set for making final proof, we all went down again to the Oregon City Land Office, and Mealey took the boys down under the big bridge and handed each of us $410 with which we were to pay for the land, and he told us how to answer the questions when we made the proof. We then went to the Land Office and proved up, paying over the money and receiving our final certificates, after which we proceeded across the street to a notary public's office, where we signed deeds transferring our claims. I don't know who we signed the land over to, but as Mealey had told us it was for Fred. Kribs, I suppose he got all the land.
"After this we returned to the bridge again, and after handing our deeds and final receipts over to Jud Mealey, he gave us $50 apiece, besides enough money to take us home on."
When Nicholls had concluded his narrative. Burns seemed much pleased as he believed this story to be true, and expressed the opinion that Andy would make a good witness for the Government, and in appreciation of his action in divulging the whole truth, Burns decided to appoint Nicholls as an assistant in the Secret Service Department, realizing that he would be a valuable man in helping to round up a number of the Sweet Home locators, who had eluded the officers in the first instance, and taken to the tall timber.
In this capacity Andy proved to be of exceptional value to the Government, as he had been born and reared in the Sweet Home country and was thoroughly familiar with every nook and corner; hence it was largely due to his efforts that the entire bunch was finally brought into camp.
The confessions of Allie Houser, of Roseburg, and Andy Nicholls, of Sweet Home, soon became known, which fact caused general consternation among those who had previously appeared and made false affidavits. On top of this came the news that I, too, had joined forces with the Government, and was lending my assistance to Burns in the matter of securing evidence, so those who had been used as "dummies" to make the timber entries decided that the jig was up, and it was only a question of time then as to how they could square them-
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