The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-04
THEY WERE IN HOT PURSUIT.
How Two Local officers Arrested
the Wrong Man.

The night was dark and cloudy and
a few stray flakes of CONCEALED mois-
ture were in the air suggestive of an
impending snowStorm, but aside
from these few indications of a
coming change in the weather,
the atmosphere was apparently
in it's accustomed place n
everything about the Union Pacific
railway station was to all appearances
unusually usual as two of Salt Lakes
minions of the law, two of the very
finest, paced with measured step up
and down the platform waiting for the
incoming Denver express.
Wrapped closely in their warm top
coats the two sleuths were unmindful
of the falling thermometer: besides
they were on the scent and what genu-
inc sleuth knows cold and hunger when
an important capture OF a desperate
criminal is close at hand with always
a possibility of attendant danger? And
that these were genuine sleuths, none
acquainted with their records for sa-
gacity and daring would for an instant
question
A telegram had been recefv-
ed at headquarters earlier
in the evening requesting the arrest
and detention of a desperate criminal
who had escaped from the corporate
limits of Colorado's metropolis. The
aforesaid Sleuths had heard the tele-
gram read and had Immediately de
cided without waiting to be detailed
to add another laurel to the album
dainty bespangled wreath which al
ready crowned their broWs. This, of
course. lest someone might mistake
otherwise, is metaphorical. What they
intended to do, in the plain language
of the patrolman was to increase their
stand in with the head of the depart
ment and at the same time make a
reputation for sagacity beyond their
deserts by making the arrest and not
let anyone know they had ever heard
of the telegram, but instead convey the
impression that they knew a rogue
when they saw him and just arrested
him on general principles.
And sc their blood ting1ed as every
we'll regulated officers blood is wont to
do under similar circumstances as they
paced, by this time impatienty, and
waited for the train which it seemed
would never come. Presently a shrill
whistle was heard in the distance and
a moment later the glare of a head
light came into view. The trusty Of
fcers pulled themselves together, felt
to see hat their irons were ready and
their guns handy.
AS the train slowed down one took
his station at the day coach while the
other watched the sleeper. A tall.
muscularly built figure emerged from
the day coach. Both sleuths spied him
at once n drew close together, for
everyone knows that in union there Is
courage or something to that effect. At
any rate they got together. Yes, that
was the man, "six foot two" the tele-
gram had said, and dark and we'll
hIIlT'-fh0TP RO1I16 he no noir{n1-1
"See here me bold buck, you're my
prisoner the two gleefully san out in
concert while each took possession of
an arm.
Instead of the expected resistance, the
grip which the stranger carried in one
hand fell to the platform while a roll
paper which the other hand contain
ed strung itself across the platform.
The d~esperado's establishment was
something picturesque as he stared in
utter amazement at his captors.
Yes, those were unmistakable signs
of guilt. The absence of the expected
resistance was forgotten in the face of
TINS more certain proof of a guilty con-
science. So come along" was ordered
and the march for the station. or
rather the patrol box was begun but
or other it was never reached.
Just how the prisoner escaDed NAV
never be known but the fact hat he
was not booked at the station nav
have been due to the further one that
the officers discovered before they had
gone far that their prisoner was none
other than Representative Sevy of
Garfield county; and now Mr.. Sevy's
colleagues. to whom he confided the
story Of his mishap yesterday, are un-
KIND enough to say they are of the
opinion that the officers had the right
man, but let him go when they found
he was a legislator because of the fat
a member cannot lawfully be
arrested during a session.
Stranger than all also, though, is the
fact that the sleuths never made any
report of their capture at headquar-
tpTc