After Kribs had taken his departure, and Mr. Burns and myself had canvassed the statement, I could see that the latter was palpably disappointed with its contents, and felt disposed to summon Kribs before him again forthwith, but I reasoned him out of this idea, and said it would be much better for me to have a private talk with him before attempting to call him to account for some of his errors and omissions. Burns finally conceded the point, so I called upon Kribs again at his office, where I told him that his statement had found a resting place in Burns' waste basket; that Burns would not think for a moment of accepting an.v such statement from him. and that, if he could not make up his mind to tell all he knew, he might as well be prepared to take the consequences.
"I don't know what more Mr. Burns could expect me to say," responded Kribs in sorrowful tones. "I made a clean breast of having secured those lands for C. A. Smith, and also stated that I was on very friendly terms with the officials of the Roseburg Land Office, who had extended special privileges to me; also, that I had employed the law firm of Mitchell & Tanner in the matter of expediting patents, even going so far as to admit having instructed those entrymen as to what answers they should make when they came here to testify before the Federal Grand Jury. Now, I think Mr. Burns ought to be satisfied with that."
"Well, Kribs," I answered, "he is not satisfied, nor will he be until you tell the whole truth. It is all very well for you to state that you have been on friendly terms with the officials of the Roseburg Land Office and that they extended special privileges to you, but what about the consideration? Why didn't you tell what you paid for these special privileges and to whom it was paid? Why, too, didn't you state exactly for what purpose you paid that money to Mitchell & Tanner? In other words, why didn't you admit having made all arrangements with Senator Mitchell personally, and that, when you turned over the several amounts to Mitchell & Tanner, as a matter of fact, that each and every payment was to go to the Senator personally, and not to be credited to his firm?
"You know, Kribs, that you had a private understanding with Senator Mitchell, and that you agreed to pay him a certain amount for every patent that he pulled out for.you. You know, as I do, that the Senator accepted every dollar of that money in the nature of a bribe. Why didn't you say so, and why didn't you state the amounts and when they were paid? These are questions that must be answered, and just as sure as your name is Fred A. Kribs, just so sure will Mr. Burns insist upon your giving him this information, and when he asked you to state the plain, unvarnished facts, he expected you to do so, and I am here to tell you that nothing short of that will be accepted."
"So he threw my statement in the waste basket, did he?"
"That's exactly what became of it."
"Shall I try it again?"
"That's about the only thing you can do, but it's no use if you try and keep anything back next time."
"I will think it over tonight, and try and concentrate my mind on the subject, and do my utmost to prepare one that will prove satisfactory."
"All right, do so; and bring it to Mr. Burns' office, and I will arrange to be on hand and do what I can for you."
Kribs appeared bright and early the morning following, and addressing Mr. Burns, said: "Mr. Puter informs me that you were not entirely satisfied with my statement of yesterday, so I have prepared a new one, which I trust will meet with your approval."
"No," declared Mr. Burns, "I was not at all satisfied with your other statement, as I found that it did not contain anything like as much as you promised to divulge, nor did it present the facts as I know you are in a position to give them to me."
"This statement covers all the ground," responded Kribs meekly, and handing it to the Government sleuth, continued, "I have dealt with all the salient features."
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