Pardon me for addressing you at this
time, and overlook the impropriety of the
step, in consideration of the motive by which
I am actuated. It is to make known to you
that your son Robert has been found. He
was stolen by Cabel Crowl, or an accomplice
of his; and that villain carried him, the
same night on which he was taken, to the
house of an old woman, living in a miserable
quarter of the town. I kept the villain
in custody from that time until the day on
which you saw him. On the next day evening
he came to me again, and said, that
having gone to the woman with whom he
left your son, he had learned that the child
was lost again. Through the vigilance of
Louis, I discovered that Crowl had carried
off Robert, and learned where he had concealed
him, on the very night the event took
place; and directed Louis to see that the
child was restored to you directly.
`Before he could do so, however, Robert
tired probably of the company of the woman
under whose charge he was, ran away from
her and was lost in the streets of Boston.—
As soon as I learned this, I ordered Louis to
spare no pains or expense in tracing him
out, which he has at last succeeded in doing.
`You may have seen an announcement of
Crowl's death in the papers. If not it will
be news to inform you that he was drowned
the night on which he made known to me
that Robert had been lost from the woman
with whom he left him.
`I leave Boston to-morrow, to spend the
winter in the south. Remember me to your
sister, and to Dr. Farley, to whom I feel under
lasting obligations. Adieu,
Your friend,
Gustavus Burnam.'
