The Caledonian-record. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-current, 1922-11-18
Mills Story Of His
Escape Sensational
Continued from page u

to the island about midnight. There
were five Of Us, the rest coming
along to say gOodby to me.
"When we got near the machine
which was a little way from the
roadway which runs around the
island, | saw two men crouching
near the car and | thought there
were others in it, | Immediately
grabbed hold of one of my COM
p%anions who was nearer the car
than | was, pulled him back and
told everybody to run. We ran a
short distance and then stopped,
for we We're not sure that the men
around the car were officers. Then
they started for Us and some yell
ed Come here.'
"When they yelled that, we felt
sure they were officers and | told
everyone to beat it. We ran and |
told the other fellows to get away
from me, as it would look
worse for them if they
were caught with me. Two
Of them stopped and guess
the officers got them. One of them
ran Off in another direction and
don't know what became Of him.
TIE fourth stayed with me and we
lln toward the other end Of the is
larl where we saw 9 house built on
piers. They are mostly summer
Houses On the island without foun-
datIcns. We craWled under one of
these houses. In a short time we
saw the officers coming toward the
house carrying lanterns or lights OF
some sort, and | insisted that the
rc'low hiding with me get away,
for / didn't want him TO get
CAUGHT. So he beat it and | don't
know where he went.
"a stayed right under the house,
keeping fiat and very quiet on the
ground. Fhe officers came up.
They had q police dog with them
and they urged the dog to go under
the house, which he did. He came
Up to me. smelled of my clothes,
but | made no move, because |
thought the only thing to do was
to make the dog believe | was en-
tin ely composed. Then he turned
about and went away.
"In the meantime the officers
WcrC throwing their lights here and
there and why they didn't e. me
is more than I know. Finally all of
them went their way. | waited
about 20 minutes and then ran
down to the shore where | saw a
beat. knew | had to get off the
island before daylight or get
caught. The boat didn't have any
oars in it, and | pushed it off
shore. There was a fairly stiff wind
blowing and standing inrthe middle
Of the boat, | held out my overcoat
and this acted as a sail. | made
some progress this way, but the
boat leaked badly and kept going
slower and slower. Finally | saw it
was going to sink and | knew I'd
have to swim. SO | took off my
olercoat, and jumped into the
water, dragging the oVercoat be-
hind me-
Mills said the fact the boat sank
was probably the reason why his
means of escape could not be as
certained. "OtherWise," he said,
"the boat would have been found
on the other shore the next morn
| swan to the other shore
leaving the water somewhere near
Grove street and then walked for
more than mile to some woods,
where | hid until morning. In the
meantime my clothes dried off to
some extent and | decided to take
a chance and go down town.
81 went into the city again, got
some breakfast III a restaurant, let
my clothes dry off more and then
took a trolley to Clinton, Mass.
There | saw a machine standing
the street and | took it and
drove straight through to Troy"
Mills said he first began to 60
wrong after losing his job with a
named Hayes in WOrces- ,
ter. He explained ne fell in with a
fellow named McQuirk and that
the two of them started out for
the Canadian wheat fields, They
took a train to Fitchburg and here
they decided to take a chance at
bootlegging and they stole THEN
first car. They went to Canada to
discover that booze cost much
more than they had expected.
1--WE then came back to New
Bedford" he said, land visited
some hotel and saloon keepers in
IN attempt to gec money enough
o buy a carload of whisky. But
We couldn't put this scheme across
Then we went back into Canada,
along another fellow we
picked up in New Bedford. He was
1 Canadian and we went to his
nome town, where he planned a
,obbery. We got in a store there
md stole an automobile load Of
including high priced furS.
Then we started for the States
again and shortly before reaching
St. Johnsbury we held up a man
nd took a Lincoln machine from
lim, two of Us stayed in the Lin
'oln and the other drove the Cad
llac which contained the stuff we
lad stolen. The latter was arrest
ID. He drove too slow" n
Mills said that some time later
lie and the other fellow were cap
ured as they were attempting to
ret across the border and they
we're then brought to St. Johns
Jury Jail. After escaping from the
all he and his companion walked
II the afternoon and evening and