Page:Looters of the Public Domain.djvu/258

 As he made ready to take his departure. I informed him that I, too, would probably return to Boston that evening, and in event of my doing so, would call him up over the 'phone on the following day.

He had been gone but a short time when I fully decided to follow him to the city, so bidding my host good bye, and assuring him of my sincere appreciation of the favors shown me, I departed in his buggy for the station, being driven by one of the farm hands, and when we arrived there, I caught an electric car for town.

Upon reaching the suburbs of Boston, I remained there until nightfall, amusing myself in an effort to bargain for a grocery store that I had no notion of buying, and for which the owner wanted fully double its real value. My efforts to purchase the meat market next door met with the same success, so I gave it up as a bad job, and hunted up a restaurant where I had something to eat. As soon as it was sufficiently dark, I boarded a car and headed for the city.

Arriving there, my first move was to engage a room, which I secured within three blocks of the place where I formerly resided. This was about eight o'clock in the evening, and as I had nothing else to do, I took a streetcar for what is known as the "down town district," and some distance away from where I knew that Burns would be likely to stop. Here I attended one of the vaudeville theaters, where I spent a couple of hours, after which I repaired to a restaurant and enjoyed another good meal. I then returned to my room and retired for the night.

Morning found me up bright and early, and as I could not hope to communicate with my friend at that hour, I took a car ride to the outskirts of the city, some thirty-five or forty blocks away from the Fenway postoffice, or business portion of the city, where after breakfast, I called my friend up over the 'phone, informing him of my presence and asking him to meet me at a certain time in a given place. I did not, however, mention my name, as we had previously agreed between us that in making use of the telephone, I was to represent myself as a physician and would introduce the conversation by inquiring about a patient.

When I met my friend, he had much news of importance to relate, but in order to ease my mind as to the safety of my grip and check, he commenced by telling me that my landlady still held them in her possession and he thought it best that they remain there for the time being, as both had been secreted away in a safe place, and, as the premises were being watched by detectives, any attempt to remove the grip, or anything of that description, would surely result in disaster. My friend assured me further that the landlady had fully recovered her composure and would not be likely to divulge any additional information to Burns, and by way of encouragement added that Burns, too, seemed to have eased up on her and was nothing like so severe as in the beginning. He had, however, made several visits to the boarding house since taking the trunk away, but was more modest in his manner and line of inquiry than at first.

After discussing the situation with my friend, we concluded that it would be unwise for him to attempt to remove my grip, or even to hold frequent conversations with me, as he had been seen to enter and emerge from the boarding house quite frequently, and it was more than likely that suspicion had already been directed toward him. We decided, therefore, that the next best move would be to employ an attorney and to advise with him as to the most feasible method of securing my belongings.

Page 252