Having traced this $200,000 from Calhoun to the Mint and from the Mint to Ford, the prosecution proved by Charles Hagerty, Ruef's office boy, that during the weeks after the fire General Ford and Mr. Mullally of the United Railroads, had had conference with Ruef at Ruef's office. Ruef was traced to Ford's office. Ford's stenographer testified, reluctantly, to Ruef's presence there. Ford was shown to have sent warning, through his assistant Abbott, to Ruef, at the opening of the graft investigation, that the Grand Jury was taking up the matter of the United Railroads trolley privilege, that the prosecution had not made any headway, that it was thought the next step would be to lay some trap for the Supervisors.[307] That Ruef and Ford had more or less intimate relations during this period was fully established.[308] The question raised was: Did the $85,000 in currency which Ruef gave Gallagher to be paid to the Supervisors for their votes on the overhead trolley permit pass from Ford to Ruef? Did the money paid the Supervisors come out of the unaccounted-for $200,000 which had disappeared into General Ford's possession?[309] A word from Abe Ruef would have lifted the case out of the plane of circumstantial to that of positive evidence. A word from General Ford would have shown the manner in which the money had been disposed. Those who took seriously Ruef's protestations at the time of his plea of guilty to extortion, that his life would thereafter be devoted to undoing the wrong he had wrought, looked to see the prosecution put Ruef on the stand. The many supporters of General Ford--he was one of the most likable and popular men in the State--who still held belief in his innocence, looked to see him take the stand to clear his name by accounting for the disposition of that $200,000 which he had received, at the order of President Calhoun, from the Mint officials. But neither Ruef nor Ford took the stand. Later developments in the graft cases showed why the prosecution did not call upon Ruef to testify. But no satisfactory showing has been made why General Ford did not take the stand to tell, under oath, of the disposition of that $200,000 last seen in his possession. Heney, in an affidavit[310] acknowledged March 10, 1908, tells why Ruef was not called upon to testify.