The Penn's Grove record., 1888-07-21

give each other away and then we sep
arated. 1t was pitch dark and l couldn't
see any place to hide, but L remember
ed that the shelves didn't run all the
way up to the ceiling, and l just climb
ed up the front of them and laid down
on the top shelf, which had a high cor
nice along the front. BY squeezing
down fiat and gettin' as close to the
wall as / could, 1 managed to fix my
self so that 1 felt r that nobody
could see me unless they climbed a lad
der and looked from the other side of
the room. The dust was an inch thick
up there, and it made me sneeze a dozen
times. but when 1 had been quiet a
while it settled, and 1 felt safe so long
as I didn't stir it up again.
"Long about 6 o'clock in the morn
ing it began to be light, and the fellows
outside got Drawer. They came up to
the door and kicked in the panel and hol-
Tered for us to give up or die. After
bout half an hour or more somebody
unlocked the front door and pushed it
open. l couldn't see anything but the
top Of the door and a bit Of the side
walk on the other side Of the road, but
l listened and heard an old Ia urging
a constable to 60 in and do his duty.
Finally, I guess as many as twenty men
came in and l heard them blowing and
cooking and unlocking their guns.
There must have been at least three OF
them, judging by the stuff they eat and
drank 1 heard the old mans voice
saying, and a minute later 1 heard a
shout: Here is n Of them. Come
out of that! Pull him out! Surrender,
or l will blow q hole in you'd and l
heard one of my unlucky chums being
drug out from under the counter, the
worst place he could think of hiding,
because he might have knowed that it
would be the first place they would look.
"'How many more is there of you2'
l heard them ask.
"'None.' says he. They left me and
ran away at midnight"
'Good for him, I thougs vi > game
anyhow; but next minute 1 heard a
scratchin' in the coal bin and a yell
showing that another chum had been
ketched. He was square. too, and
swore that there was only two of 'em
in the job, and after a long search the
constable and most Of the town people
went away, leaving the storekeeper and
two or three men in the store. Then
the clerk come and the boss told him
the story. To hear those fellers talk
you would think they had a hand-to-
hand scrimmage with an army of tough
men. and that they had burnt a kag Of
powder in the fight. Every customer and
every loafer that comes In had to hear the
story over again, and each time the old
man told it he made a bigger hero of
himself. One of the loafers leaned agen
a barrel that was standin' 'mongst
others at the back of the store and up
set it. There was a yell and a scramb-
lin, and 1 heard the back-door slain.
Then I knowed what my other chum
had been doing. He had been hiding
under an empty barrel, and when he
was discovered had made n break and
he got away, too. but was arrested a
couple Of days later. He was chased
for half-a-mile, and when the fellers
came back to the store they started an.
other search. They fairly tore that
store out, and l expected every minute
that one of them would think of look
ing on top of the shelves. but they
didn't, and my worry ceased when they
let up.
81 Just laid there and listened whilst
the old man told the story to somebody
he called judge The old reprobate
said that he missed over 500 and three
watches, besides the cigars and the cider
and beer. He said that he was woke
up bout 8 O'Clock in the morning by a
burglar-alarm goin' off, and he found
that the back door of the store had been
opened. He went round and gathered
a dozen neigfbors with guns and pis-
tolls and came down to the store. He
swore 1 fired at him when l looked out
of the broken panel, and that he heard
the bullet whistle past his head just as
he pulled the trigger of the gun. Now,
you can imagine that this was mighty
pleasant for me a layin' there on top OF
that shelving in the dust and hearing
him lie. After 1 had been there what
| thought was four hours, and was all
cramped up and stiff, l ventured tc
twist around a little, and found that
could see down through a thin crack In
the cornice, and caught q glimpse of a
little clock in front of a mustard can.
1t was just half-past seven O'Clock. ]
thought the clock couldn't be going,
but after watching it a little while
saw that the hand was creeping around.
I::laid there listening and watching that
clock all day long. came to the con.
clusion that the old man had been oil
ing the wheels of the clock with cold
molasses. l never saw such q slow
timepiece. AT seventeen minutes past
nine O'Clock l heard the old man tell a
neighbor that he had found two loaded
revolvers In a barrel of rice. This wa.
a surprise to me, but 1 couldn't tell
whether lie was lying or whether my
chums we're heeled and had chucked the
guns away rather than to be caught
earring them. l got awful dry and
wished l had thought of fetchin' a cou-
pie of bottles of beer with me. This
reminded me of the cigars in my poe
ket, and by moving very cautious.like
1 managed to get my hand up to my
breast pocket and get one Of them.
chewed half Of 1t and felt quite con-
tented for a while. After l had been
there about two weeks, it seemed, q
man came in and priced some tin milk