Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-02-21
Hall.

There was front room and two real
rooms, with hall the length of these
latter. One room, as VOL See.--was-
exactly over the vault. and this leads me
TO tell sou how the vault was built. It
was of brick, and two feet thick, and at
the top the joists of the second floor
were covered with boiler plates. The
spaces between the joists we're filled in
with cement. On top OF the second
floor joists, before laying the floor we
laid other plates OF iron, aud when the
bank was opened for business VIC had
little fear of our cash being stolen by
any tenant OF the upstairs rooms.
The idea was to rent the rooms to
lawyers or doctors, but the first caller
decided 10 take all three, and to pay one
years rent in advance He was stranger
to all, but gave his name as Samuel Gold
waithe, and explained that he was an
inventor, and was then seeking to per-
feet certain tools for the use of miners
One Of his ideas was drill to be worked
by turning a wheel The man had
frank, open face, a smooth tongue, and
when he offered to put down a whole
years rent in advance it would not have
been business to keep him out. While
Mr.. Desnoyers, my partner, was per
fectly satisfied as to our upstairs man, |
was not There wasn't the slightest
reason TO suspect that he was not what
he claimed to be, or that he had any de-
signs against US, but somehow felt N.Y.
self snspectlng him from the first
moment saw his face. He hadn't got
settled in his rooms when | planned he
would enter our vault by way of the
back room, or at least make an attempt
to do so, and this idea was never ont of
my mind thereafter. was laughed at
by my partner, but this only made me the
more obstinate iu clinging to my idea.
Goldwaithe furnished the front room
as reception room and office, the sec
ond as bedroom and the third as his
workshop. Exactly over the vault he
had carpenter put up heavy frame
work of beams, and among the stuff
moved in was chiseIs, hammers, aueers.
bits, drills, files, saws and many other
carpenters and mechanics tools. |
could say nothing, as he made use of ell
these as an inventor, but my suspicious
regarding his final object were contin-
ually strengthened.
For three months our man un stairs
scarcely entered the bank below or spoke
to one of US, except as met him at the
hotel where We both boarded He was
so quiet and easy spoken that everybody
had good word for him, and ne invited
many of the townspeople to visit his
rooms and examine his work. At the
end of six months he was universally
liked and respected, and if he had want
cd couple of hundred dollars at our
bank dozen business men would have
backed his note. While | had become
ashamed to longer mention my suspicious
they had by no means left me. We had
no Waterman, and the safe in the vault
was one of the old pattern which was
neither fire nor burglar proof Ny chief
dependence was on the strength of the
vault. l made all sorts of estimates, but
finally decided that Goldwaithe could
not cut his way down into the vault and
open the safs in less than twelve hours
at the very least The tools and appl1
ances of that day were very crude COM
pared TO the modern.
The man up stairs had been with us
half year. and no one could find the
least fault with his conduct. when he
seemed to make special effort to win
my friendship. Up 10 this time he had
passed the evenings in his rooms. With
out saying 4 word TO my partner, 1 had
passed my evenings in the bank, never
leaving until about ten o'clock. | did
this to shorten Goldwaithe's time. pro-
viding he intended TO enter the vault. |
was always at the bank at half mast
seven in the morning, and this would
give him only nine and half hours to
work, where l had figured it would take
him twelve.
One evening something was said about
cards, and he SO managed it that | in
vited him up to my room in the hotel to
play few games. As long as he was
there unprecedented no danger, aud so it
.lnally came about that We used to spend
almost every evening incompany. Some
times | went TO his rooms, aud some
times he went to mlne, and he never ex-