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252 • LINCOLN THE UNKNOWNnow employed as a stool-pigeon by <strong>the</strong> Secret Service. He hadno team and wagon waiting in <strong>the</strong> ravine; but he did have eightdetectives waiting for him in <strong>the</strong> memorial room of <strong>the</strong> tomb.So he raced around <strong>the</strong>re and gave <strong>the</strong>m <strong>the</strong> signal <strong>the</strong>y had allagreed upon: he struck a match, lighted a cigar, and whispered<strong>the</strong> password "Wash/'The eight Secret Service men, in <strong>the</strong>ir stocking-feet, rushedout of <strong>the</strong>ir hiding-place, every man with a cocked revolver ineach hand. They dashed around <strong>the</strong> monument with SwegJes,stepped into <strong>the</strong> dark tomb, and ordered <strong>the</strong> ghouls to surrender.There was no answer. Tyrrell, <strong>the</strong> district chief of <strong>the</strong> SecretService, lighted a match. There lay <strong>the</strong> coffin, half out of <strong>the</strong>sarcophagus. But where were <strong>the</strong> thieves? The detectivessearched <strong>the</strong> cemetery in all directions. The moon was comingup over <strong>the</strong> tree-tops. As Tyrrell rushed up onto <strong>the</strong> terrace of<strong>the</strong> monument, he could make out <strong>the</strong> forms of two men, staringat him from behind a group of statuary. In <strong>the</strong> excitementand confusion, he began firing at <strong>the</strong>m with both pistols, andin an instant <strong>the</strong>y were firing back. But <strong>the</strong>y weren't <strong>the</strong> thieves.He was shooting at his own men.In <strong>the</strong> meantime, <strong>the</strong> thieves, who had been waiting a hundredfeet away in <strong>the</strong> darkness, for Swegles to return with <strong>the</strong>horses, dashed off through <strong>the</strong> woods.Ten days later <strong>the</strong>y were caught in Chicago, brought toSpringfield, thrown into a jail, and surrounded by heavy guardsday and night. For a time <strong>the</strong>re was intense public excitementand indignation. <strong>Lincoln</strong>'s son Robert, who had married into<strong>the</strong> wealthy Pullman family, employed <strong>the</strong> best lawyers in Chicagoto prosecute <strong>the</strong> gang. They did what <strong>the</strong>y could, but <strong>the</strong>yhad a hard time. There was no law in Illinois, <strong>the</strong>n, againststealing a body. If <strong>the</strong> thieves had actually stolen <strong>the</strong> coffin,<strong>the</strong>y might have been prosecuted for that, but <strong>the</strong>y hadn't stolenit; <strong>the</strong>y had not taken it out of <strong>the</strong> tomb. So <strong>the</strong> best <strong>the</strong> highpricedattorneys from Chicago could do was to prosecute <strong>the</strong>ghouls for having conspired to steala coffin worth seventy-fivedollars, <strong>the</strong> maximum penalty for which offense was five years.But <strong>the</strong> case did not come to trial for eight months; public indignationhad died down by that time, and politics were atwork; and, on <strong>the</strong> first ballot, four jurors actually voted foracquittal. After a few more ballots <strong>the</strong> twelve men compromisedand sent <strong>the</strong> ghouls to <strong>the</strong> Joliet prison fox one year.