228 WHERE, WHEN, AND HOW TO CATCH FISH 



young man asked me if we were there the day before, and being told 

 we were, he said that a friend had gone by in a sailboat and had told 

 him there were four men on the wharf about eleven o'clock. I asked 

 him why he mentioned that fact, and he said the post-office had been 

 robbed while they were all away Christmas morning to church, the 

 loss being $107. I turned to Capt. John and said, "John, we are 

 in a scrape"; and he replied, "No, the amount is not large 

 enough." 



The boy at once said, " We don't think you did it, not for a mo- 

 ment ; you don't think we would have the least idea you did it, do 

 you? " I replied, " No, I don't think you would ; but if we did not 

 do it, who did? " I then questioned him as to all the people living 

 within ten miles, and they were all accounted for, in fact, were all 

 at the church, and no boats had passed, as they were only two miles 

 to the south and could see boats if there had been any. He then 

 said, " Nobody but those two niggers over on the bay front could 

 have done it " ; and we all replied that it was impossible, as we had 

 seen them all day ; and I said I would swear I had seen them all day, 

 and that they could prove an alibi by all four on my boat. 



I told the boy all about it, and when I spoke of having said to 

 the darkies, " There was not a living soul on the place," he replied, 

 "They did it, and that remark led them to do it." We all pro- 

 tested that it could not be, and said, "The darkies can prove an 

 alibi, and we cannot." We felt a little cheap over the matter, and I 

 thought of the elder Weller's advice to his son Sam, when he said, 

 " I have got some friends as' 11 do either for him, but my advice 'ud 

 be this here — never mind the character, and stick to the alleybi. 

 Nothing like a alleybi, Sammy, nothing." But we had no "al- 

 leybi" to stick to. That burglary lay between those two darkies 

 and ourselves, and the darkies could prove an "alleybi " by us. 



Well, we were not arrested ; in fact, there was no officer there to 

 do that work, and we went on our way, rejoicing, down to Key West, 

 where we remained a few days. From there we worked north out- 

 side, and about two weeks after the burglary landed at Planter for 

 our mail. 



We found the same young man in charge, and asked him if they 

 had found out who committed that robbery. He said, "Yes, it was 

 those two niggers." 



We said at once, " Impossible, they could not have done it"; and 



