Daily Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1882-1893, 1884-02-22
LIZARD AND BURGLAR
Aseat ~ Novel Q Case Of nsuss.
Breaking ~ There In 90 ReeerA.

Assut ~ Novel . Case Of nsuss.
Breaking ~ There In 80 RecsrA.
New York SUM-
Speaking about lizards" said 0
naturalist, Il will tell You story that
will probably astonish you. The Incl.
dent ! am about to relate occurred in
India. AMI won't undertake to describe
the place or the people. The natives
that ] met there, however. were nearly
oil possessed with the belief that their
chief mission in the world was to take
possession Of whatever they could Law
their hands ON. ! WAS advised 10 keep
things under lock and key. and so I did,
hut after stay Of month became
rather careless, and, having the second
story OF o stone house, felt pretty secure.
One nigst after l had put out my
light anu sat down to smoke, % was
my custom, heard . curious scratch.
ing noise under the window. and look
ing out perceived several figures below
crouclling in the darkness. I thought
nothing of il, though, o. there Was no
way for thieves to get in, and returned
to my chair. But in moment I heard
the same scratching noise, o. II some
one were rasping the stone with sharp
instrument. For about ten minutes
this continued. Every once in Q while
the noise ceased, and there Vas Q thud
AZ il some one had fallen. In the mean.
time. the moon. which had been under
Q cloud. came out, and hearing the
noise nearer the window than ever, !
went over. and looked down through the
lattice again. I saw three men. One
Was STOPPING down, and another upon
his back was reaching mp the wall.
soon. in some mysterious manner, the
man moved directly upward. On hs
came with the curious scraping sound.
Then there was slip, and the man
fell and wan caught BY bis companions
I had . heavy club in the room and,
taking 1t, ! moved my neat over BY the
window and lsy low, wondering what
sort Of Q machine they had that en-
sbled them to 60 up . straight wall.
In about twenty minutes, after several
more slips and much scrsping, ] saw .
black object moving up over the sill,
but IL wsa not the head OF man. A
second later, however, human hand
grsspsd the window, and brought the
club down upon il and the black object
with all the power l could muster.
With yell the would-be thief vent
tunbling down the twenty fest or more
OF wall, and I soon heard footstep
going down the road on dead run. I
immediately ran down. calling my man
q went, expecting to find rope or
cord Of some kind. but there was moth.
ing Of the sort. and l gave II up ss .
mystery. Stepping back 70 60 In I
stumbled over something, and looking
down. found II WAS large lizard. stone
dead. His skull was broken. What
do you suppose my man told
me, and which I found out
later Was trueg Nothing less than that
/ had killed the lizard by my blow Of
the thief, and that the animal had
hauled him up the side Of the house.
These lizards ere very powerful, and
have long, sharp claws. When grssped
by the tail and placed against the wall,
up they will go with force quite sui.
ticient 10 pull up .. small man after
them. Il Was the scratching Of the
animals claws thaS I had heard. I
guess this 10 about % novel 0 method Of
houss.brea king o. there 10 on record. !
understand, however, that IL IVES not
uncommon there.