Chapter XXIII: Unto the Last

When Samuel J. Coggswell learned that his disciple and confidential man, Jake Hines, had been brought back to New York under arrest, he was greatly perturbed.

“And what does he say?” he asked the reporter who brought him the news. “What does the misguided young man say? I suppose he has been making some sensational and, of course, absolutely false statements about me, eh?” He looked at his visitor anxiously.

“On the contrary,” the newspaper man replied, “they can’t get a thing out of Jake, Mr. Coggswell. He refuses to talk.”

An expression of great relief came to the district leader’s face. “Ah!” he exclaimed, his ears wiggling rapidly as he spoke. “Poor Jake, poor Jake! So they can’t get a word out of him, eh? Jake always was a stubborn young man--a very stubborn young man.”

After the newspaper man had gone, Boss Coggswell sat in his private office at the clubhouse, smiling confidently to himself.

“I might have known Jake wouldn’t squeal,” he mused. “He’s not that kind. Even though they’ve got him, I guess I’m safe.”

Even in the worst of men there is usually some redeeming trait. Crook, grafter, and scoundrel as Jake Hines was, there was one thing which, perhaps, should be put down to his credit--his unswerving loyalty to his master.

The prosecuting attorney, certain that Samuel J. Coggswell was behind the conspiracy against Owen Sheridan, which had landed Jake in the toils, and anxious to get the bigger fish in his net, if possible, offered to deal leniently with Hines if he would make a confession involving the boss. But Jake stubbornly refused.

“No,” he said, “I ain’t convicted yet, and while Boss Coggswell’s my friend I won’t give up hope of beatin’ this case. But if the worst comes to worst, and I have to go up--well, I’ll be the goat. You won’t get a squeal out of me!”

Coggswell made every effort to keep his subordinate from going to jail; that is to say, every effort which it was possible to make in secret. He got a bondsman for Jake, even though the latter’s bail was set at a very high figure, and arranged for the young man to skip his bail and escape beyond the jurisdiction of the courts before the case came up for trial.

But this plan was defeated by the vigilance of the prosecuting attorney, who, anticipating such a move, had Hines watched so closely by detectives that it was impossible for him to get away.

Failing in this attempt, Coggswell retained the very best lawyers obtainable to defend his faithful follower; and when this array of legal talent met with defeat, and Hines was found guilty by a jury, the politician exerted all his powerful influence to save the convicted man from a jail sentence. But this attempt also failed, and Jake Hines had to go to prison.