"AT THAT MOMENT THE DINGHY SHOT INTO THE SHADOW OF THE FISHING-BOAT." 'You may shoot, or you may not," cried Scarrow, striking his hand upon the breast of his frieze jacket. "If it's my last breath, Sharkey, I tell you that you are a bloody rogue and miscreant, with a halter and hell fire in store for you." "There's a man of spirit, and one of my own kidney, and he's going to make a very pretty death of it," cried Sharkey. "There's no one aft save the man at the wheel; so you may keep your breath, for you'll need it soon. Is the dinghy astern, Ned?" "Aye, aye, captain." "And the other boats scuttled?" "I bored them all in three places." "Then we shall have to leave you, Captain Scarrow. You look as if you hadn't quite got your bearings yet. Is there anything you'd like to ask me?" "I believe you are the devil himself," cried the captain. "Where is the Governor of St. Kitts?" "When last I saw him his excellency Iwas in bed with his throat cut. When I broke prison I learned from my friendsfor Captain Sharkey has those who love him in every port-that the Governor was starting for Europe under a master who had never seen him. I climbed his veranda, and I paid him the little debt that I owed him. Then I came aboard you with such of his things as I had need of, and a pair of glasses to hide these tell-tale eyes of mine, and I have ruffled it as a governor should. Now, Ned, you can get to work upon them." "Help! Help! Watch, ahoy!" yelled the mate; but the butt of the pirate's pistol crashed down on to his head, and he dropped like a pithed ΟΧ. Scarrow rushed for the door, but the sentinel clapped his hand over his mouth, and threw his other arm round his waist. 44 "Sink me, but I like his spirit!" cried Sharkey. Put your knife in your pocket, Ned. You've saved your skin, Scarrow. It's a pity so stout a man should not take to the only trade where a pretty fellow can pick up a living. Tie him up, Ned." "To the stove, captain?" "Tut, tut! there's a fire in the stove. Make him fast to the table." "Nay, I thought you meant to roast him!" said the quartermaster. "You surely do not mean to let him go?" "If you and I were marooned on a Bahama cay, Ned Galloway, it is still for me to command and for you to obey. Sink you for a villain, do you dare to question my orders?" "Nay, nay, Captain Sharkey; not so hot, sir!" said the quartermaster, and lifting Scarrow like a child, he laid him on the table. With the quick dexterity of a seaman, he tied his spread-eagled hands and feet with a rope which was passed underneath, and gagged him securely with the long cravat which used to adorn the chin of the Governor of St. Kitts. "Now, Captain Scarrow, we must take our leave of you," said the pirate. "If I had half a dozen of my brisk boys at my heels I would have had your cargo and your ship, but Roaring Ned could not find a foremast hand with the spirit of a mouse." Captain Scarrow heard the key turn in the lock as they left the cabin. Then as he strained at his bonds he heard their footsteps pass up the companion and along the quarterdeck to where the dinghy hung in the stern. Then, still struggling and writhing, he heard the creak of the falls and the splash of the boat in the water. In a mad fury he tore and dragged at his ropes, until at last, with flayed wrists and ankles, he rolled from the table, kicked his way through the closed door, and rushed on to the deck. 66 44 Ahoy! Peterson, Armitage, Wilson!" he screamed. Cutlasses and pistols! Clear away the long boat! Clear away the gig! Sharkey, the pirate, is in yonder dinghy. Whistle up the larboard watch, bo'sun, and tumble into the boats, all hands." Down splashed the long boat and down splashed the gig, but in an instant the Coxswains and crews were swarming up the 64 falls on to the deck once more. 'The boats are scuttled," they cried. "They are leaking like a sieve.' He The captain gave a bitter curse. had been beaten and outwitted at every point. Above was a cloudless starlit sky, with neither wind nor the promise of it. The sails flapped idly in the moonlight. Far away lay a fishing-smack, with the men clustering over their net. Close to them was the little dinghy, dipping and lifting over the shining swell. They are dead men," cried the captain. A shout, all together, boys! to warn them of their danger." 64 But it was too late. At that very moment the dinghy shot into the shadow of the fishing-boat. There were two rapid pistol shots, a scream, and then another pistol shot, followed by silence. The clustering fishermen had disappeared. And then suddenly, as the first puffs of a land breeze came out from the Sussex shore, the boom swung out, the mainsail filled, and the little craft crept out with her nose to the Atlantic. THE CAPTURE, DEATH, AND BURIAL OF J. WILKES BOOTH. BY RAY STANNARD BAKER. THE TRUE STORY OF THE PURSUIT AND CAPTURE, AND DEATH AND BURIAL OF THE ASSASSIN OF LINCOLN, NOW FIRST TOLD FROM THE PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF COLONEL L. C. BAKER AND LIEUTENANT L. B. BAKER, WHO DIRECTED THE PURSUIT AND DISPOSED OF BOOTH'S BODY. [THE final capture of John Wilkes Booth, the murderer of President Lincoln, has been generally credited to Lieutenant E. P. Doherty and a squad of cavalry under his command. Morse, in his "Abraham Lincoln, says: "Late on April 25, a squad of cavalry traced Booth to a barn in Virginia," etc. Nicolay and Hay, in their history, say: On the night of the 25th of April, a party under Lieutenant E. P. Doherty arrested, in his bed at Bowling Green, William Jett, one of the Confederate soldiers mentioned above, and forced him to guide them to Garrett's barn." Lieutenant Doherty has also given himself the credit of the capture in an article in "The Century Magazine" for January, 1890. The truth is that Lieutenant Doherty and his command were simply an escort furnished to a detective who had been employed by Secretary Stanton to find the murderer of the President. This detective was Colonel L. C. Baker. He had as aids Lieutenant L. B. Baker and Lieutenant-Colonel E. J. Conger. They had become convinced that Booth must be near a certain point, and asked an escort in their search. This escort was directly under Colonel Baker and his lieutenants, and had nothing whatever to do but obey their orders, which it undoubtedly did. The confusion in the story, which has crept into the best histories, has induced Mr. Ray S. Baker of Chicago, a cousin of Colonel Baker and a nephew of Lieutenant L. B. Baker, to prepare an exact account of the pursuit and capture. He has used in preparing his article the private papers and reminiscences of his cousin and uncle, the records of the War Department, the newspapers of the day, and the printed reports of the trial of Booth's accomplices. We believe that his article is not only historically accurate, but that it gives a vivid description of this remarkable transaction such as would be impossible save from one who had received his information first-hand from one of the leading actors in it.-IDA M. TARBell.] PR RESIDENT LINCOLN was shot a few minutes after ten o'clock, Friday evening, April 14, 1865. The conspirators could not have chosen a more favorable occasion for their bloody work. Washington and the North were in a paroxysm of rejoicing over the surrender of Lee and the close of a long and bloody war. The rigor of military restrictions was in some degree relaxed, and the highways of travel north and south were rapidly opening. Everywhere the air was filled with the spirit of disorganization consequent on the mustering out of armed men and the return of the soldier to his plow-handle. Even the President of the United States, weary of tedious cabinet meetings, had laid aside his arduous duties on that fateful Friday evening, to seek much needed rest at the theater, No doubt Booth and his accomplices were conscious of this general relaxation, and calculated on it to assist them in their escape when the plotted deed in Washington was done. Certain it is that if the military cordon had been drawn as closely as it was while active hostilities were in progress, the chief assassin and his assistant never would have thundered past the sentinel on the navy-yard bridge and escaped into the yet hostile South. And compelled to remain within the confines of Washington, their capture by the police doubtless would have been a question of only a few hours. As soon as the news of the assassination reached the War Department, thousands of soldiers, policemen, and detectives were despatched to guard every possible avenue of escape, with orders to arrest every per son who sought under any pretext to leave Washington. The Navy Department sent numberless tugs, steamers, and even ships of war to patrol the Potomac, in the hope of preventing the flight of the assassins by boat. Before the morning of the 15th the lines were so thoroughly established that the shrewdest spy would have found difficulty in creeping through them without being captured. But at that late hour it was all to no purpose; Booth was miles away. In this emergency, Secretary of War Stanton turned to the national secret service bureau, a branch of the department which was under his immediate direction and control. Colonel Lafayette C. Baker (afterwards General), its chief, was in New York city making plans for the capture of a band of bountyjumpers then operating in the North. Mr. Stanton telegraphed him in the following words: April 15, 3:20. COLONEL L. C. BAKER: Come here immediately and see if you can find the murderer of the President. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. cation over his own name of a handbill offering $30,000 reward for the capture of the fugitives.* Twenty thousand dollars of this amount was subscribed by the city of Washington, and the other $10,000 Colonel Baker offered on his own account, as authorized by the War Department. To this handbill minute descriptions of Booth and the unknown person who attempted the assassination of Secretary Seward were appended. Hardly had the bills been posted when the United States Government authorized the publication of additional rewards to the amount of $100,000 LIEUTENANT L. B. BAKER AND HIS HORSE "BUCKSKIN." From a photograph taken in 1881. This was the horse ridden by Lieutenant Baker in the pursuit of Booth. His body is now mounted and preserved in the Museum of the Michigan Agricultural College. for the capture of Booth, Surratt, and Herold, Surratt at that time being suspected of direct complicity in the assassination.f Three States increased this sum by * Following is a copy of the reward handbill issued by Colonel Baker-the first to be sent out: $30,000 Reward. Description of JOHN WILKES BOOTH, Who assassinated the PRESIDENT on the evening of April 14th, 1865. Height 5 feet 8 inches; weight 160 pounds; compact build; hair jet black, inclined to curl, medium length, parted behind; eyes black, and heavy eyebrows; wears a large seal ring on little finger; when talking inclines his head forward; looks down. Description of the person who attempted to assassin ate Hon. W. H. Seward, Secretary of State. Height 6 feet 1 inch; hair black, thick, full, and straight; Early the next morning Colonel Baker reached Washington. He was accompanied by his cousin, Lieutenant L. B. Baker, a member of the bureau, who recently had been mustered out of the First District of Columbia cavalry. They went at once to the office of the War Department, and, after a conference with Secretary Stanton, began the search for the murderers of the President. Up to this time the confusion had been so great that few of the ordinary detective measures for the apprehension of criminals had been employed. No rewards had been offered, little or no attempt had been made to collect and analyze the clues in the furtherance of a systematic search, and sued by Secretary Stanton and circulated by Colonel Baker: the pursuit was wholly without a directing leadership. Colonel Baker's first step was the publi L. C. BAKER, Colonel, and Agent of the War Department. + This was the exact wording of the reward handbills is WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, April 20, 1865. $100,000 reward. The murderer of our late beloved President, Abraham Lincoln, is still at large. $50,000 reward will be paid by this department for his apprehension in addition to BLADENSBURG MARLBORO SURRATTVILLE WIER BROAD C DR. MUDD'S BOOTH'S FLIGHT AND LIEUTENANT BAKER'S PURSUIT. THE DOTTED LINE MARKS BOOTH'S COURSE ; THE BLACK LINE, BAKER's. $25,000 each, and many individuals and. companies, shocked by the awful atrocity of the crime, offered rewards in varying amounts. Fabulous stories were told of the wealth which the assassin's captor would receive, the sums being placed anywhere from $500,000 to $1,000,000. This prospect of winning a fortune at once sent hundreds of detectives, recently discharged Union officers and soldiers, and a vast host of mere adventurers-the flotsam of Washany reward offered by municipal authorities or State executives. $25,000 reward will be paid for the apprehension of John H. Surratt, one of Booth's accomplices. $25,000 reward will be paid for the apprehension of David C. Herold, another of Booth's accomplices. Liberal rewards will be paid for any information that shall conduce to the arrest of either of the above named criminals or their accomplices. All persons harboring or secreting the said persons or either of them or aiding or assisting their concealment or escape will be treated as accomplices in the murder of the President and the attempted assassination of the Secretary of State, and shall be held to trial before a military commission and the punishment of death. Let the stain of innocent blood be removed from the land by the arrest and punishment of the murderers. All good citizens are exhorted to aid public justice on this occasion. Every man should consider his own conscience charged with this solemn duty, and rest neither night nor day until it is accomplished. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. Descriptions:-Booth is 5 feet 7 or 8 inches high, slender ington-into the field, and the whole of southern Maryland and eastern Virginia was scoured and ransacked until it seemed as if a jack-rabbit could not have escaped. And yet, at the end of ten days, the assassins were still at large. Booth was accompanied in his flight by a callow, stage-struck youth named David C. Herold, who was bound to the older man by the ties of a marvelous personal magnetism which the actor exercised as a part of his art. Two hours after the assassination the fugitives reached Mrs. Surratt's tavern, where Herold secured a carbine, two flasks of whisky, and a field-glass. They imparted the information with some show of pride that they had just killed the President of the United States. By this time Booth's broken leg had begun to give him excruciating pain, and the two rode without delay to the house of Dr. Mudd, a Southern sympathizer of the most pronounced type. Here the assassin's leg was set and splinted, for lack of better material, with bits of an old cigar-box. Rude crutches were whittled out by a friend of Dr. Mudd's, and on the following day Booth and his deluded follower rode on to the southward. For more than a week they were hidden in a swamp near Port Tobacco by Samuel Cox and Thomas Brown, both of whom were stanch Confederates. Here they were compelled to kill their horses for fear that a whinny might reveal their presence to their eager pursuers. After many attempts Brown was able to send the fugitives across the river in a little boat, for which Booth paid $300. Once in Virginia, and among Southerners, Booth felt that they would be safe; but in this supposition he was sorely disappointed. At least one prominent Confederate treated them as murderers and outbuild, high forehead, black hair, black eyes, and wore a heavy black moustache, which there is some reason to be lieve has been shaved off. John H. Surratt is about 5 feet 9 inches. Hair rather thin and dark; eyes rather light; no beard. Would weigh 145 or 150 pounds. Complexion rather pale and clear, with color in his cheeks. Wore light clothes of fine quality. Shoulders square, cheek bones rather prominent; chin narrow, ears project at the top; forehead rather low and square but broad. Parts his hair on right side; neck rather long. His lips are firmly set. A slim man. David C. Herold is 5 feet 6 inches high, hair dark, eyes dark, eyebrows rather heavy, full face, nose short, hands short and fleshy, feet small, instep high, round-bodied, naturally quick and active. Slightly closes his eyes when looking at a person. Notice. In addition to the above State and other authorities have offered rewards amounting to almost One Hundred Thousand Dollars, making an aggregate of Two Hundred Thousand Dollars. |