"Q. $1,000? A. Yes, sir. "Q. And you passed it out in the same way? A. Yes, sir. "Q. And it was put through with that understanding? A. Yes, sir. "Q. The only definite, was it, it hasn't come? A. Not yet. "Q. Do you know why the money hasn't been given to you yet by Ruef? A. No, sir. "Q. Has he given you any reason? A. Mr. Ruef said that the amount has not been paid to him. "Q. You heard complaints from the members that they had been so long about coming through? A. Yes, indeed. "Q. Did you make complaint to Ruef about it? A. Yes, sir. "Q. What did he say? A. He made that excuse consequently that he didn't have it. "Q. Never said that he did not expect it? A. Did not." [182] The anxiety on the part of the confessing Supervisors to tell the truth was pathetic. When McGushin began his story he was asked: "Of course this statement you make is free and voluntary." "Yes," replied McGushin, simply, "Mr. Gallagher himself told me to tell the truth." [183] "I want to learn from your own lips," he told Wilson, "if what I have already heard is true regarding your making a statement to the prosecution." "I have been thoroughly informed," said Ruef in an interview given out later, "of everything that the members of the Board of Supervisors are reported to have told the Grand Jury, and I have no comment to make upon their alleged confessions at this time. Later, however, I will issue a statement which will furnish more sensations in connection with municipal graft than anything that has been made public." [184] Gallagher left the conference first. Wilson testified at the graft trials that after Gallagher had gone Ruef stated that "had he been in Gallagher's place he wouldn't have made those statements to the prosecution." "You can never tell what one will do until he is placed in Mr. Gallagher's position," replied Wilson, "we discussed the matter fully for two or three days before he took that step." [185] The nearest Ruef has come to a statement of his connection with the public service corporations is contained in his story, "The Road I Traveled," which appeared In the San Francisco Bulletin. The account is inaccurate and incomplete. Nothing, for example, is told by Mr. Ruef, of the proposed Bay Cities Water Company deal, which at one time he claimed to be the most important of all he had in view.