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thousand dollars and been sent to the penitentiary for five years? Who would lend him the
money wherewith to get a little start, even so much as four or five thousand dollars? The people
who were calling to pay their respects now and then, and to assure him that he had been badly
treated? Never. All of them could honestly claim that they had not so much to spare. If he had
good security to offer--yes; but if he had good security he would not need to go to them at all.
The man who would have actually helped him if he had only known was Frank A. Cowperwood.
Stener could have confessed his mistake, as Cowperwood saw it, and Cowperwood would have
given him the money gladly, without any thought of return. But by his poor understanding of
human nature, Stener considered that Cowperwood must be an enemy of his, and he would not
have had either the courage or the business judgment to approach him.
During his incarceration Cowperwood had been slowly accumulating a little money through
Wingate. He had paid Steger considerable sums from time to time, until that worthy finally
decided that it would not be fair to take any more.
"If ever you get on your feet, Frank," he said, "you can remember me if you want to, but I don't
think you'll want to. It's been nothing but lose, lose, lose for you through me. I'll undertake this
matter of getting that appeal to the Governor without any charge on my part. Anything I can do
for you from now on is free gratis for nothing."
"Oh, don't talk nonsense, Harper," replied Cowperwood. "I don't know of anybody that could
have done better with my case. Certainly there isn't anybody that I would have trusted as much.
I don't like lawyers you know."
"Yes--well," said Steger, "they've got nothing on financiers, so we'll call it even." And they shook
hands.
So when it was finally decided to pardon Stener, which was in the early part of March,
1873--Cowperwood's pardon was necessarily but gingerly included. A delegation, consisting of
Strobik, Harmon, and Winpenny, representing, as it was intended to appear, the unanimous
wishes of the council and the city administration, and speaking for Mollenhauer and Simpson,
who had given their consent, visited the Governor at Harrisburg and made the necessary formal
representations which were intended to impress the public. At the same time, through the
agency of Steger, Davison, and Walter Leigh, the appeal in behalf of Cowperwood was made.
The Governor, who had had instructions beforehand from sources quite superior to this
committee, was very solemn about the whole procedure. He would take the matter under
advisement. He would look into the history of the crimes and the records of the two men. He
could make no promises--he would see. But in ten days, after allowing the petitions to gather
considerable dust in one of his pigeonholes and doing absolutely nothing toward investigating
anything, he issued two separate pardons in writing. One, as a matter of courtesy, he gave into
the hands of Messrs. Strobik, Harmon, and Winpenny, to bear personally to Mr. Stener, as they
desired that he should. The other, on Steger's request, he gave to him. The two committees
which had called to receive them then departed; and the afternoon of that same day saw
Strobik, Harmon, and Winpenny arrive in one group, and Steger, Wingate, and Walter Leigh in
another, at the prison gate, but at different hours.
Chapter LVIII
This matter of the pardon of Cowperwood, the exact time of it, was kept a secret from him,
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