Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-07-17

"a IN HSs82 sT24 III -NcW OFh, anu my
H6ETX pc cial business
$50 80. was tracing up pri-
vate m a erS or
cases which had no connection with
Government work; and although during
the course of my professional career l
passed through several adventures of a
similar nature l have always considered
this as being about the closest shave
that l ever had. was sitting in nv
Office in the city one cold night toward
the close of that year, silently enjoying
the warmth of the stove, when l heard
some one come quickly up the steps and
ring my Office bell. Feeling too COM
Portable to rise / called out for him to
enter. Thus invited the knocker en-
tered, and l recognized him Immediately
as one of our most prominent bankers
Introducing himself he took seat and
came directly to business
Last night" he said, my bank was
robbed of ten thousand dollars in bills.
Now the man whom l suspect, and
whom / have every reason to believe is
the guilty party, is fellow that | hired
few days ago as ianitor. He was usu-
ally very regular at his business. but
this morning he did not come at all,
and l have found out since that he
bought through ticket for San Fran
cisco early this morning and took the
first Western-bound train
I asked him for description of his
janitor, and when it had been given
recognized the fellow as a noted Grim
inal who had already been in the peni-
Tertiary twice for house breaking, but
had escaped both times. He had passed
ali lint
was Thomas Carter. The banker stated
further that the vault had very evident
ly been opened by skilled craftsman,
and this confirmed me in my belief that
/ knew the thief.
Now" said the banker, sit is not the
loss of the money that has induced me
to take this step, for the amount is COM
paratively small, but this event is n
precedent with our firm, and l wish
that fellow to be made an example of;
and if you will bring him to justice you
may call all of that ten thousand which
you can extract from him your own, and
as that may not be sufficient you may
cali on me for FIVE thousand more. If
you take the contract, here is one thou
sand now to pay your expenses in trac-
ing him up"
and took the one thousand. thus for
mally sealing the bargain. The banker
now departed and left me to think over
and plan my campaign. Carriers ticket
to San Francisco did not fool me.
supposed and after circumstances
proved that was correct in the suppo-
sition-that he would follow the road
straight for several hundred miles. then
he would get off and double on his track
by means of some other road; all this in
order to throw any pursuers off the
track. In order that he might not fool
me in this way l would be obliged to
get off at every station and make in
quiries. This would take time, but it
would make the work thorough.
Next morning after making few in
qViries of the ticket agent who had sold
Carter his ticket, / bought my ticket
and took the train. / followed the
plan which l had laid out in the be-
ginning, but for fully month and
until l reached Laramie City l could
find no indication that my man had
stopped or turned back; but at Laramie
] found out from depot lounger that
man answering to the description
which 1 gave of Carter had gotten off
there about three weeks before, and
with all my inquiries l could not find
that he had gone away.
Now was jubilant 1 was up with
my man at last and would soon have
him safe and sound. l prosecuted the
search with new vigor, but for fully a
week could find no trace of Carter; but
finally, one morning, while making in
quiries in faro den in one of the low
est quarters of the city, found that a
fellow answering to Carriers description
had fought the tiger" there almost all
the night before and had lost about
Thousand dollars. l also found that
about two o'clock in the morning he had
left on horseback, and we'll armed, in
company with a Mexican of rather bad
repute. giving out that he intended to
go across the mountains to the mining
camp of P and, as he expressed it,
''raise a little wind"
1 now saw clearly what his object
was. He was heading for Dead wood,
which was at that time a sort of round
ing-up place" for all the notorious and
desperate characters in that section of
country. As soon as l could procure a