I felt the force of the appeal, but was impressed still more strongly with detestation of the conduct of a man who could deliberately risk involving the members of his domestic circle in misery and disgrace for the sake of enriching himself at the expense of those who had confided in his integrity.

"I can't go now, my dear," said he, withdrawing his hands from hers, "I am very busy. Run along and tell mother not to wait for me."

So away tripped little Innocence, joyfully humming a simple air, and leaving us to deal with the grim question before us.

I now commenced a search among some waste papers scattered upon the floor and one of the tables, for the wrapper in which the decoy letter had been enclosed, but I could find it nowhere. I however continued the search, hoping to find the string, if nothing else; and my perseverance was rewarded by the discovery of the package at the back part of a drawer in a desk. The package appeared to be in a perfect state, except that the string was missing. Holding it up, I inquired of the post master, "What is this package doing here?"

"It must have been thrown out by mistake in overhauling the mail last night," replied he.

I removed the wrapper, and immediately found a full confirmation of my previous a.s.sertions, for the letter itself had been broken open, and the large wafer subst.i.tuted for the original seal. In fact it had been served exactly like its rifled predecessors, and was now waiting to go forward to New York by the next mail. I also observed a quant.i.ty of the large wafers lying upon the desk, a few of which I secured for the purpose of comparison. The evidence of the string now became of little importance, but I wished to find it if possible, and after a few moments' search, I discovered it lying on the floor behind the counter of the store.

The probability is that after the mail had pa.s.sed that night, he took the stolen letter to the store, and there opened it.

Against such overwhelming proof as this, it was worse than useless to contend. So thought the unfortunate post master, whose tone now changed considerably. He refunded on the spot the proceeds of the last night's robbery, and proposed to make over a portion of the goods in his store as security for the rest.i.tution of the amount previously purloined, if by such a step he could save himself and his young family (consisting of a wife and the little girl already referred to,) from the crushing effects of public exposure.

But this tender regard for the happiness and honor of his family came too late. Such considerations, if others are insufficient, ought to restrain one from the commission of crimes; and it has always seemed to me that when a man in the full possession of his faculties can thus compromise the comfort and peace of mind of his innocent family, he deserves little sympathy or pity from any quarter, however sincerely he may regret his folly.

Willis was arrested by a local officer, and taken before a Justice of the Peace in that neighborhood, who, notwithstanding the efforts made to impress upon him the importance of holding the accused for trial, fixed the bail at a few hundred dollars, which sum was readily furnished by responsible parties.

As several weeks were to elapse before the session of the Court, it was my intention to re-arrest him under a United States warrant, as soon as one could be obtained, but during the night he made over a portion of his property to his sureties, and hastily filling a few trunks with articles of clothing and other personal property, he decamped with his family to Canada, leaving behind a deserted home and a disgraced name.

As soon as the crimes of Willis became known in the town, universal sympathy for the wife of the criminal was felt and manifested. She was a refined and accomplished lady, connected with a highly-respectable family in a neighboring county, and had endeared herself to all who knew her, by her kindness and other excellent qualities. Like a true woman, she remained constantly at the side of her husband, after his arrest; overlooking all his offences in her devoted affection, and palliating them to others as far as she could, on the ground of pecuniary embarra.s.sments.

Some weeks elapsed before a clue was obtained to his whereabouts. The deputy Marshal, to whom this business was intrusted, entered upon the search with great energy, and finally succeeded in arresting him, and conveyed him to Utica, New York, where he was examined before the United States Commissioner, who held him to bail in a large amount, for trial before the United States District Court. Being unable to obtain this heavy bail, he was sent to jail a few miles from Utica, to await his trial. His wife, on his second arrest, returned to her father's house. It was soon after this that she wrote him the following letter, which was left in the jailor's possession:

F----, Feb. 6, 1850.

My dear William,

It goes to my heart to feel that we are separated, even for a time, and above all, to think _what it is_ that separates us. But, William, my love for you is such, that I had rather you were thus than dead.

"I ask not, I care not, if guilt's in thy heart, But I know that I love thee, whatever thou art."

Oh! what strong temptation you must have had to struggle with, before you yielded to it! And I know that you meant to restore the money to those it belonged to, at some time or other.

I sometimes find it hard to elude Julia's artless inquiries. She wants to know "why Father went away with that man and didn't come back." Poor child! must she ever know that her father is in a----?

I can't write the word.

G.o.d forbid, my dear, that I should speak a word of reproach, but perhaps I can say in a letter what I might find it hard to say if I were with you. I am sure, William, that you have fallen into error for my sake and Julia's, but let me a.s.sure you, from the bottom of my heart, that I had far rather sink with you into the depths of honest poverty, than rise to affluence, leaving an approving conscience behind. Never think of me for a moment, I beseech you, as a wife whose wishes must be gratified at whatever expense, but reckon on me as one who will ever be ready to undergo any self-denial which the adoption of a straight-forward course may involve. I reproach myself that I had not been more free to confide to you my views on this subject before your misfortune.

Had I done so, perhaps we might have been differently situated now. But the past cannot be changed. The future may be a new life to us, if we wish it; and shall we not?

As to the bail, I have strong hopes that it can be arranged before long. I hope to be with you as early as next week.

Julia sends a kiss to Father, and says, "Tell him I want him to come and see me and mother." I send the same for myself. Good night, my dear, and many good morrows.

Your affectionate wife,

ELLEN.

Not far from two weeks after the committal of Willis to jail, Mrs.

Willis called one day late in the afternoon, and requested permission of the jailor to spend the night with her husband. This officer was a kind-hearted old gentleman, and the lady-likee deportment of the applicant, whom he had seen on former occasions, had won his entire confidence. He made no objection, and his native gallantry, and sympathy for the lady, prevented a very thorough investigation of the contents of a large basket that she brought with her, which presented to his eye nothing but a goodly array of such delicacies as are not usually included in a prison bill-of-fare. So she was ushered into her husband's place of confinement, basket and all.

The jailor retired to rest that night with the happy consciousness of having done at least one kind act during the day, and slept soundly,--perhaps more soundly than usual--till morning.

When going his accustomed rounds, he noticed sundry shavings and chips of a decidedly new and fresh appearance on the floor outside of Willis's door. He further noticed that the door was partly open, whereupon he hastily entered the room in no small perturbation of mind. Nor was his disturbance diminished when he found that there was but one occupant of the bed, and that, the fair lady whom he had admitted the night before! She was apparently fast asleep, and although the spectacle was one of a picturesque description, the old gentleman would have derived much more satisfaction from a sight of her liege lord. He looked in all directions round the room, with the vague idea that his prisoner might start up from behind a chair or table; but no such phenomenon occurred, and the conclusion forced itself upon him that he had been made the victim of misplaced confidence; in other words, that Willis had escaped by the aid of his devoted wife and her treacherous basket. An auger, concealed in its depths, had been smuggled in, and used in boring off the door-hinges, and now lay on the floor.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"Mrs. Willis," cried the now indignant jailor, "Mrs. Willis, I say!"

But the slumberer stirred not, and he repeated the call in louder tones,--"Mrs. Willis, where's your husband?"

Rising up on one elbow, and looking about the room, apparently much confused, she replied,

"Where's my husband? have you taken him away without letting me know it?"

She steadily refused to give any information concerning the time or mode of his escape, and was equally careful not to deny that she furnished the means for securing his exit. She was therefore arrested and taken before an United States Commissioner, charged with aiding and abetting the escape of a prisoner; but such was the public sympathy in her behalf, that she was discharged from custody, and no doubt, soon joined her husband, who had proved himself so utterly unworthy of such an affectionate, devoted, and heroic companion.

Not long after this escape, a suit was brought in one of the lower courts, against a brother of Willis, to recover the value of a horse killed by hard driving on the night of Willis's disappearance. It was more than surmised that the two circ.u.mstances were in some way connected.

CHAPTER VII.

Startling Complaints--Character against Suspicion--The two Clerks--Exchanging Notes--The Faro Bank--Tracing a Bill--An official Call--False Explanation--Flight of the Guilty--The fatal Drug--The Suicide--Sufferings of the Innocent--The Moral.

The close of the year 1839, and the opening of 1840, were marked in the Post-Office Department with frequent and startling announcements of the loss, by mail, of valuable letters from Southern Virginia, and Eastern and Northern North Carolina, directed to Richmond and other commercial cities farther North.

These cases, as they reached the Department, were duly prepared and submitted to the Special Agent for investigation. Search and inquiry were promptly inst.i.tuted. But for a time the utmost vigilance failed to obtain any clue to the supposed embezzlements. The cases of loss continued to multiply; and at length the Agent's attention was particularly drawn to the Distributing Post-Office at P.

A circle of numerous facts pointed unmistakably to this spot as their center and focus. It was here that the lines of circ.u.mstantial evidence from every quarter converged and met. The post-office at P., therefore, became an object of special interest in the eyes of the Agent.

However, investigations in this direction proved at first no more successful than elsewhere. The high integrity of character for which the post master was distinguished, and the excellent reputation of his clerks, stood like a wall of adamant in the way of all evidence and all suspicions.

The Agent seemed destined to be baffled at every point. Yet a stern truth stared him in the face, and fixed its immovable finger over this Distributing office. Every missing letter, although reaching P. by various routes, had been mailed at points South of it for points North of it. Here they must all concentrate, and here only. It was therefore at this place only that all the losses could have occurred.

Several days were pa.s.sed by the Agent in P. and the vicinity, quietly pursuing his investigations. No person knew the secret of his business. He became acquainted with the post master and his two clerks, studied their characters, and their social circ.u.mstances.

The first was a man of position and competence, whose honor no breath of calumny had ever dimmed, and who could not possibly have any motive for periling the peace and prosperity of his family by a dishonest course. Neither did the unflawed respectability of the clerks betray any c.h.i.n.k or crevice in which to harbor a doubt.

The elder of these, and the superior in the office, was a young man of education and refinement. We will call his name Carleton. His face was frank, his eye steady and clear, his manners always self-possessed and easy. The Agent liked and admired him from the first. He learned too that he was a favorite with all who knew him--that his connections were among the first families in the State; and that by his talents and high-toned generous impulses, he had so far n.o.bly sustained the l.u.s.tre of his family name.

Another circ.u.mstance was greatly in Carleton's favor. Although descended from the "aristocracy," the fortunes of his family had run somewhat low in the later generations; and now, his father being dead, he devoted himself zealously to the maintenance of his aged mother, and the education and support of his only sister.

The junior clerk was a youth of minor pretensions. He was uniformly retiring in his manners. Although by no means a person of forbidding aspect, there was something measured and guarded in his movements, far less prepossessing than the free and chivalrous bearing of Carleton.

This apparent prudence might arise from various causes. The Agent could not believe that it was the result of a secretive and dishonest disposition. If such was the case, however, that same discretion had effectually succeeded in covering the poverty of his moral character from public scrutiny.