Lincoln's Grave Robbers

On November 10, the presidential election continues to dominate the news, with both parties claiming victory and accusing the other of fraud: In three crucial states, the results are still too close to call, and contentious recounts are underway. Though some of the nation’s newspapers scoff at the Lincoln graverobbing story, treating it as a hoax, others use it for political capital, claiming it was engineered by partisan operatives as a political “dirty trick.”

In Chicago, Lewis Swegles slips furtively into the Hub, aping the part of a wanted man for the benefit of James Kennally, who is serving drinks at the bar. Kennally, still enraged over the second botched graverobbing, explodes at him. Curtly, the crime boss says he hopes never to see Hughes or Mullen again. Mullen, however, manages to get a message to Swegles from his hiding place in Chicago, asking if it’s safe for him to return to his usual haunts. Swegles assures him it is, since, with the fractious election, the Lincoln story has largely been ignored or scoffed at; and within a day, Mullen is back at his bartending job at the Hub. Swegles passes this news on to Tyrrell, who has also learned that Hughes is hiding out at his father’s farm.