Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-03-14

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home i1vited him to meet me at the
hotel the next evening. He smilingly
| assented, but next instant compressed
his lips. This meant: "This detective
| is not the fellow supposed he was. He
| is pleasant and ch9tty, and wants 70 be
| friendly, and | rather like him. Blu: he
sent M friend to prison, and have
sworn to take his life. He shall not escap pc
! me"
| That night some one broke skeleton
/ key ia the lock of my street door. How
foolish TO suppose I would trust to locks!
It was no doubt my friend, making his
| first attempt Oh my life. It is a curious
! trait in criminal nature that two out of
/ five men will abandon an undertaking if
meeting with disappointment on a first
attempt. Those who persevere become
more dangerous than before. It was g
question now of how my enemy would act,
/ but I was satisfied as soon as set eyes on
him the next evening. At sight of me he
! com pressed his lips. The failure had
/ fred his zeal, ard I realized that from
this on I must certainly be on my guard
| every hour in the twenty-four.
! We played the three games together,
! sat side by side and smoked our cigars,
and an outsider would have supposed us
| the best of friends. The man perhaps
feared that I would wonder and speculate
about him, and he handed me mis- card
and explained that he had come on from
the east expecting to engage IN the lum-
| Der business. His name was printed as
rs. r. Mcknight" Could I be mistaken
in him, you ask? I had no doubt that he
was the writer of the threatening letter.
| If I had doubted, something occurred as
We sat smoking that wodld have reassured
me. a man who was known to me to be
crooked entered the billiard room for
drink. He started in surprise at seeing
| Mcknight, and was about to approach
him with extended hand when a signal
| stopped him. Unless Mcknight was
fly" man he could have no knowledge of
the other. I pretended to see vacancy,
and parted with my enemy in the great
est good nature. That night an attempt
was made to bore panel out of my door,
but the bit was stopped by the sheet
| iron.
| I did not see Mcknight the next eve
ming nor the next, but he showed up on
the third evening and explained that he
had been to Milwaukee. l knew better.
| He had been trying to work out some
new plan to get at nee, and had spent a
! portion of the time at crooks resort.
! He had hit upon a plan. | knew that
from the cordially of his greeting, and
! all through our games [ was wondering
what scheme he had hit upon. It was
revealed TO me at midnight that very
night. bad bell on my door and at
! that hour it was vigorously pulled. In
case of my being wanted at the office the
messenger was instructed to ring in GER
tain manner. AS this was not his ring
waited for few minutes, when the bell
rang more vigorously than before.
| slipped on my pants and went down and
opened the slide in the door. Mcknight
s,ood there and when [ asked what was
wanted ne replied:
"Really, old fellow, am sorry to have
troubled you, but came to ask your ad
vice, [ was handed a very queer letter
after | left you, and l want you to read it
and tell me how to act. I'll go up stairs
with you"
l told HIM that one of our men was
occupying the room with me that night,
aud advised him to see me at the office
next morning He had planped to get into
my room and pounoe upon me, but I
snuffed the game. he did not show up
| again. He may have believed that [ sus
| pected him and was determined to keep
| the fatal blow. Next door to me, on the
! downtown side, wss a vacant lot. One
| day, week after last seeing Mcknight,
several dry goods boxes were brought to
this lot and piled up in such a way as to
form good hiding place next to my
door. | scented an idea as | investigated,
aud that night, when within a square of
the place, ] met a couple of young fellows
and offered them a quarter to go and
| dIsplace the boxes, explaining that a
vagrant had taken up his quarters there.
! They went with a whoop, and q man
rushed out of hiding and ran off. It was
| Mcknight.
The next day l was sent out OF the
! city and was gone two weeks. [ had not
| been back two hours when l discovered
that boy was logging me about. He
was no doubt in the pay of Mcknight,
who would now be ready for some other
move. I had TO sooner reached my room
than [ made the discovery that the win
| dow bars had been tempered with, two
having been wrenched out and all loosen
ed SO that a little work would remove
them. That night 1 asked a friend to
! stay with me. While | sent him TO the
room before dark made my usual rounds
and did not turn in until II. If Mcknight
was looking for me he saw me. We turned
out the gas, placed our revolvers at hand
and sat down near the window to wait.
At IL O'Clock Mcknight climbed a shed
from the alley, entered the insurance
office by back window, passed through
TVo rooms and appeared at the window
opposite mine. When he had raised the
sash he pushed a plank across the five
feet of space and rested the end on my
window. It was a summer evening and
my sash was up, but so quietly did the
man work that the lightest sleeper would
have heard no sound. He waited and
listened, and then came across. We
moved to the right and left and he could
not see Us as he put his face to the bars.
He must have been certain that l was
asleep, for he began work and soon had
an opering by which he could enter.
Mcknight had come to kill me, but !
did not thirst for his life. As he bent to
enter the window 1 fired over his head and
! uttered shout. He Strengthened up, lost
his balance on the plank, swung half way
round and tUmbIed to the ground. II
was only from the second story, and had
he GIFTED on his feet he might not have
been hurt. But he turned over and struck
head first, and never knew what hurt him
} his neck beins broken by the collision
When ne was dead he was identified as
New Orleans crook named Red Pete, and
When he wrote me the letter he was il
Joliet prison. His only weapon was 6
knife, but one thrust of that would have
settled me forever.
The Poets Whittier and Holmes.
: The poet John G. Whittier, who va:
visiting friends in Boston last week, wears