Lincoln, the unknown

LINCOLN THE UNKNOWN• 251with relays of fresh horses, would drive with all possible speedto northern Indiana; and there with only the water-fowl tosee them, they would hide the body among the lonely dunes,where the wind from over the lake would soon wipe out all telltaletracks in the shifting sands.Before leaving Chicago, Swegles bought a London newspaper;and, tearing out a piece, he stuffed the rest inside thebust of Lincoln that stood over the bar at 294 West MadisonStreet. That night, November 6, he and two of Big Jim's gangclimbed aboard a Chicago & Alton train headed for Springfield,taking with them the fragment of torn newspaper, whichthey proposed to leave beside the empty sarcophagus as theydashed off with the body. The detectives finding the paperwould naturally keep it as a clue. Then while the nation wasrocking with excitement, one of the gang would approach thegovernor of the State and offer to return Lincoln's body for twohundred thousand dollars in gold and the freedom of BenBoyd.And how would the governor know that the self-styledspokesman was not an impostor? The gangster would carry withhim the London newspaper; the detectives, fitting their fragmentinto the torn page, would accept him as the bona-fiderepresentative of the ghouls.The gang arrived in Springfield, according to schedule. Theyhad chosen what Swegles called "a damned elegant time" fortheir adventure. November 7 was election day; for months theDemocrats had been denouncing the Republicans for the graftand corruption that had besmirched Grant's second administration,while the Republicans had waved the "bloody shirt" of theCivil War in the face of the Democrats. It was one of the mostbitter elections in United States history. That night, while excitedcrowds were milling about the newspaper offices and jammingthe saloons, Big Jim's men hurried out to Oak RidgeCemetery—dark now, and deserted—sawed the padlock off theiron door of Lincoln's tomb, stepped inside, pried the marblelid off the sarcophagus, and lifted the wooden casket half out.One of the gang ordered Swegles to bring up the horses andspring-wagon which he had been delegated to have ready andwaiting in a ravine two hundred yards northeast of the monument.Swegles hurried down the steep bluff until he was lostin the darkness.Swegles was not a grave-robber. He was a reformed criminal