The Arizona sentinel., 1888-10-20

horses from the stable to the mail
 floor, and then out of the big doors
 One ascending by the hay-box would
 pass under a beam out on the mair
 floor To this beam I fastened two
 poles eight feet long in an upright DO
 sition, and six feet apart. I ther
 sawed off two-inch plank tC
 the right length, bored a hole
 in either end, and with the
 help of the hired man anG
 rope and pulley, hoisted it up and
 slipped it over the poles. We ar-
 ranged it to have fall of seven feet
 and increased its weight by fastening 8
 block of stone at either end. When
 drawn up by the rope and pulley we
 ran the rope through ring in the
 floor, attached wire, and ran this
 wire to a catch. A pressure of a pound on the wire released the catch and let the plank down with smash.
 We were undisturbed for about four
 weeks after the sentence of the bear trap victim. Then a stranger, who said he was a drover from Cincinnati, called one day to look at some of our stock. Wewere stall-feeding three or four steers, and the drover was shown to the underground stable. 1 was watching all his movements, and 1 saw that he gave the empty stall and the big hay-box particular attention. He had heard of our adventures, and when I gave him to understand that we feared no danger except by the small door he had a twinkle in his eyes. He praised the arrangement of the stables, and thereby made an excuse for step- ping on the edge of the manager and looking up the hay box. He could see that one climbing up there would come out on the main floor, but he could not see what I had in store for any one who tried it. On that night every thing was in readiness, but it was five nights before the victim appeared. I had a string running from the plank to the bell in my chamber, but this alarm was not needed. It was, believe, the Sth of October. The weather had been threatening all day, and at dark a drizzls set in. About eight o'clock in the evening something disturbed the hens, and the hired man went out to investigate the trouble. He heard some body calling from the barn, and we went out to discover that we had prisoner under the plank. It was not the drover who called to see the fat steers, but tough-looking fellow about twenty-five years of age who had got the pointer. He had come early so as to get a long start before day. break, and under the idea that no trap would be set until our bedtime. The heavy weight had come down across his back, aIid-l lI0-l l1sgd bOOu Dadly hurt that he could hardly move. When we removed him we sent for a doctor, and before ten o'clock the thief was told that he could not live until morning. He was at first very sullen and defiant, but as death came nearer he began to weaken. At midnight he asked us to send for the sheriff, and when that official arrived the thief made startling confession. He gave away the names and residences of score of agents, told the officer where to find fifteen or twenty stolen horses, and, in brief, made complete exposure of the whole business. Our horses, had he got them, were to have been sent to New York or Boston. He died about five o'clock next morning, while dictating letter to his mother in Chicago.
 The confession was windfall for the sheriff. He moved rapidly, and within a week almost every member of the gang in the State was in limbo. Ar rests followed in Ohio, Illinois and other States, and horse-thieving as a business received it's death blow be- fore Christmas. In our village the hotel-keeper and liveryman were ar rested, tried, aud sent to prison, and in other towns it came out that law yers, doctors, and even postmasters had been In with the gang. Indiana recovered at least seventy-fve valu- able horses which had been run out of the State, and at least thirty men were sent to prison. It was, as I said, the breaking up of the whole business, and it was all brought about through the fall of plank which country boy and a farm hand had hoisted into posi- r. Sun.