the spell that hound me to my doom. This, in all truth, was the foreboding of my fate, but the warning I heeded not. it had to come to me, but alas, too late.
Shortly after receiving this information, the Chief of Police came to my cell and announced that Mrs. McKinley was in the office and desired to speak to me.
"Just say to the lady, Chief, that I do not wish to see her," I replied.
A few minutes later the Chief returned again and remarked: "When I delivered your message. Mr. Puter, the lady asked for the privilege of writing you a note, which I said she might do and which, when written, she handed to me for delivery—here it is."
Accepting the note from the Chief. I immediately tore it up and tossed the fragments through the bars.
"You ought to have read that, Mr. Puter, as the lady left the office after handing it to me and will probably be expecting a reply," remarked the Chief.
"Can't help it." I returned, "She will have no reply from me."
With this, the Chief turned and walked away and I was once more alone. Other callers came and went, but just whom these may have been. I cannot now recall. As my readers may well imagine. I was of troubled mind and my memory of the happenings of that afternoon is not of the best.
I do remember, however, of having received a reply to a message I sent Mr. Heney, conveying information that he would call on me. This, of itself, was encouraging, though what his actions toward me might be when he came, was purely speculative. I still had hope, of course, that he would listen to my story and that he would learn and believe the truth, as it was my intention that he should receive it from me. The suspense, nevertheless, was great and I could only have wished that, instead of replying to my message, he might have appeared in person.
Some two or three hours later the Chief called on me again and mentioned having met Airs. Marie McKinley on the street corner waiting for a car to take her back to Oakland, when he was on his way to the barber shop after handing me Marie's note that I had refused to read.
The incidents connected with this meeting, as related to me by the Chief and as near as I can remember, are in substance, as follows:
"When she saw me approaching her," said the Chief, "she advanced to meet me and asked if I delivered her note to you, which I said I had, but that, instead of reading it. you tore the note into small pieces and tossed it through the bars to the floor at my feet.
"When I told her this," continued the Chief, "she broke out and sobbed like a child, declaring she believed that you blamed her for being captured, and begging that I return and plead with you to grant her an interview.
"This I did not think best, so advised her to go on home and promised that I would talk with you personally and it is my opinion, Mr. Puter, if I am any judge of human nature at all, that this little woman had nothing to do with the matter. Of one thing I am certain," continued the Chief, "Mrs. McKinley was deeply affected and her declarations of innocence and the manner in which she conducted herself, appealed to me as being most convincing that she was in no way implicated in the plot to effect your arrest."
I was gratified to learn this, as I had no desire to blame any one wrongfully, more especially my old partner's wife, a man for whom, as Marie well knew, I had done everything within my power during the many years of our business and social relations together. I was disposed, upon first learning of what had taken place, to hold Marie partially responsible, and the thought of her having contributed to such a dastardly plot, after our long years of acquaintance and in the face of all the little kindnesses I had bestowed upon both herself and Horace, made my capture doubly bitter. I was glad, therefore, for the opportunity to relieve my mind on this point, and to believe that Horace's wife was not responsible for the treachery I had attributed to her. I was also glad, some time Page 284
