The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1884-01-24
BILL .SMILEY'S SCARE.

Bill Smiley was lie ht- fingered, enter
, prising young man, who improved hi
leisure by appropriating other people
property whenever he got the chance
He was jobbing carpenter by trade
:. but his chief occupation was that of
railway thief. The method he adopte,
was to travel short distances on tn,
di6erant suburban lines, with the objec
of picking up stray umbrellas, hant
bags, and other portable articles which
! were insuficiently guarded bv, theil
{ owners He had an innocent way o
rushing from railway carriage JUS
as the train was moving Oft
seizing,in his hurry and confusion, some
" body elses hat box or umbrella from
{ the rack. On the comparatively rare oc
! casions when his mistake was discovered
before it was too late to rectify it, hi.
/ profuse apologies were generally accept
ed with more or less credulity. But, as
rule, he managed to get clear away
+ with his spoil. and so skillfully and eau
tiously did he conduct his operations
that he has never yet been convicted,
\ eAiouSh iiC was ptiIA. uAy COtSCiouS luht
the police had their eye upon him.
One evening, feeling inclined for lit
I. tie excitement, he took third-class
ticket at the Charing Cross station Oh
the District railway. and strolled down
on the platform. Keeping sharp look
Aout as he lounged about waiting for a
I. train to the West End, his attention was
attracted by the suspicious demeanor
OF tall. Yankee-looking man, who
seemed anxious to avoid observation,
and made his way to the far end of the
station. He carried a carpet bag, which
he carefully placed on the ground,
while he walked the yard in front
of it. Bill remarked that, when any one
CHANGED to approach, the man mounted
guard over the carpetbag in very reso
lutte manner. He tried the experiment
himself, ana felt convinced that the con-
tents of the bag must be valuable. As
the result of deliberate observation, he
came to the conclusion that the mysteri-
GUS Stranger was not easy in his mind
about having the bag in his possession,
from which it was no. difficult to surmise
that he had not come by it lawfully.
While these reflections were crossing
Bills mind, a train came into the station
and in the midst of the confusion which
ensued. he saw the stranger take step
forward and aecost a passing guard. A
I Jew words were exchanged between
them, during which Bill yielded 10
sudden impu Sc which prompted him to
seize hold OF the strangers bag and
make off with it.
Before there wasa chance of his deln-
: quency bel gdiscoyered Bill had leaped
into the train, which was already begin
ming to move. He felt little dismayed
at what he had done, for he was accus-
toned to act with much more circum
spection. The chances were that the
stranger would Immediately communi
cate his loss to the railway
officials who would at ence tele-
: graph down the line. This uneomforta-
Bile prospect caused Bill to break into
4 cold perspiration. for familiarity with
the danger of being apprehendeu for
4 robbery had not bred contempt tor the |
orde,l. But by degrees he began to
breathe more freely as he recollected |
the strangers evident reticence. If, as |
Bill suspected, the man had reasons for |
, desiring to conceal his identity, he might |
prefer to put mp with his loss rather |
than create disturbance.
But still, B II did not feel at all COM |
Portable, and he fastened to stow the |
bag under the seat, so that It might not |
attract the attention of the guard in case |
+ he was warned to look out for it. While |
he was thus occupied, the passenger |
who was seated opposite to him OBJ |
served, facetiously:
That amt dynamite, is it mater"
y "No," replied Bill with grin, though |
he was secretly vexed his movements |
having been noticed. cts the coat I'm |
agoin' to wear to- night when have sup
per with the Prince of Wales and the |
rest OF the royal family"
But strange to say, the facetious re-
mark OF his fellow passenger made an
uncomfortable impression upon Bill
Smiley, by suggesting to his mind very
disQuieting suspicion. He had hitherto
assumed that the bag contained yalu
ables of some kind or other; but on that
point. of course, he had no actual knowl-
edge. Now he came to think OF it, it
was possible that the contents of the bag
might be very different from what he
bargained for. This view of the oues-
ton assumed an ominous significance
when be recollected the demeanor of
the stranger and his outlandish ap-
pearance. Bill was familiar, like every
one else, with the recent Fenian out
ages. Surprising the stranger belonged
20 the dastardly gang who went about
causing death and desolation by means
of internal machinesl
Bill could not help shifting uneasily in
his seat when he thought OF the bag re,
posing snugly underneath him. II was
very easy to SCOT at the notion of it's be-
ing the instrument Of dlabolical out
rage. For some reason or other, he
found 1t i'm possible to dismiss the susp
cion from his mind. His fellow passen-
gers aimless remark seemed 10 have
acted like a revelation, and, in spite of
himself, his suspicious began to grow in
to a sort of dreadful foreboding. He
now recoilected that when he lifted the
bag he heard a strange rattle inside it,
and the sound was repeated when he
was putting it under the seat. Trltllng
as this circumstance was, it helped to
inc. ease his uneasiness. Whether his
adventure had Hurried his nerves, or
his state of health rendered him liable
to morbid fears, it is certain that he
soon became firmly convinced that the
prize for which he had risked his liberty
was an Internal machine which might
blow him to atoms at any moment.
The face;ious fellow passenger, re-
marking Bill. perturbation, which
plainly show d itself in his pale facH.
good-naturedly asked ii be was i'll, and
offered TO put the window down. This
friei dly interference caused Bill to col
lect his scattered wits, and to reflect Sc
riously what he had better do. His inn
pulse was to seize the bag and hurl it in
to the darkness. But he was restrained
from doing this, partly from lingering
hope that his booty might be really val
uab'e after all. If an explosion resulted
from the Bag being dropped into the
tunnel, he would be Immediately appre-
hended as the author of the outrage
On the other hand, some fiendish ma
chinery might be at work inside the
bag at that very moment, which rem
dered his hesitation almost suicidal.
This last reflection brought OH sort