Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-08-18

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Copyright. 1sa2, by Charles B. Lewis-]
Ny Uncle Ben was a singular man-so
| singular that in this day and age every
| body would have called him crank of the
| first grade. In the first place, he never
married; in the next, he built himself a
| house which went by the name of the
jail;' again, he sold a lot of land for $50, 900
| and kept every dollar of the money in the
| house for years; lastly, was the only rela-
| tive or other person he would admit TO the
house or trust with dollar.
went to live with Uncle Ben when L
was fifteen years old. He was then man
| Of sixty and not over well. | don't know
| how he and father fixed IL up, but went
to THE jail'' as n sort of assistant to the
old man. !. don't know but l was also
companion, though there were days at
time when he did not speak TO me. He
lived in the oil district of Pennsylvania,
and the land he sold went 10 men in the oil
business. Mostly with his own hands Uncle
Ben built the solid stone house in which he
kept the big treasure. 1t was q one story
house, with walls over two feet thick.
There were iron bars and iron shutters TO
the three or four windows, an iron door
front and back, and the roof was of boiler
plate. There was only one room in the
house. This was parlOr, bedroom, dining
room and kitchen combined. The furniture
was of the plainest. We're also our meals.
There was back yard about a hundred
feet square, and this was surrounded by a
board fence sixteen feet high. There was
also an iron door in the fence.
The house was two miles from a store,
and one reason Uncle Ben wanted me was
to run back and forth. He had deter
mined never to leave the house by itself
though no gang of burglars could have
effected entrance by working all day.
The money was all in gold, and kept in
10y oil barrel N "a Of Z he
During my first six months the old man
was never away. During the next six he
made two trips to the store. If one of US
went into the back yard, the iron door was
shut and fastened, and it was not opened
again, except we gave a certain signal
We were worse off than convicts. Only
one window was opened at a time, and we
simply sat there and killed time as best
we might We had no books or papers, no
games, only now and then a conversation.
Uncle Ben expected to be attacked every
hour, but no one could prevail upon him
to put his money in the bank.
One day. when / had been at 1.-THE JAIL
over year, some one showed a letter under
the door. Irwas for Uncle Ben. II pur-
ported TO be from a man who wanted TO
buy piece of land, and who offered such
a big price for il that uncle decided TO 90
to the town, six miles away, and deal with
him. The would be buyer fixed an inter
view Tor y q CLOCK IN tnc evening II was
now November, and it would be dark at
that hour. Uncle Ben didn't like the idea
of returning on foot after that hour, as 1t
was a rough and unsettled country. but
he finally decided to risk it. He left the
jail' at half past 4, but not until he had
cautioned me- over and over again. was
not to open door or window except at his
signal, which was five raps repeated three
times The only weapons we had were
two clubs which he had cut in the forest.
He was too suingy to buy firearms
As soon as the old man had gone | upset
the barrel OF gold on the floor and sat down
to count il. He had several times allowed
me TO count out -. 600, bat always ended
up by declaring that the rubbing of the
coins was causing him too great loss.
can tell You that the sum of $4,000 in yell
low gold pieces-five, tens and twentIes-is
a sight to interest people great deal older
than / was, and it wasn't five minutes be
fore had forgotten all else. l think had
counted out eleven piles of 81 900 each when
i heard Uncle Ben's signal We had no
clock, but it seemed to me that he had not
had time to go and return. l made all
haste to scoop the gold into the barrel. but
before this was accomplished the signal
had been repeated several times. Know
ing how annoyed uncle would be, l took
down the bar and shot back the bolts as
rapidly as possible. As the door opened a
was to turn around and make things Sc
cure / had retreated to the other end of
the room, and all the light we had was a
single candle. The man was cool and
quiet that 1 was surprised instead of being
frightened. When he turned to me- how
ever, my heart jumped into my mouth
He was tall. solid fellow. with dark
skin and coal black eyes and hair. L knew
little of men at that time, but instinct
warned me that this man a villain.
He looked all around the room, as if TAX
ing in even the most trifling objects, and
by and by he advanced to within three feet
of me and said
''Boy. set out everything good to eat
you've got in the housen'
We had some cold pork, part of plate
of beans and some Indian bread and l hus-
tied the stuff onto the table.
''No coffee or tea" he gruf1ly demanded.
mo. sir"
Don't you lie to me, you young wolff
The old man always keeps whisky. Bring
me the jug"
Uncle Ben was not drinking man, but
always kept a little whisky a medicine.
There was about pint in the jug, and the
man poured it out into a basin and drank
most of it before he ate Il mouthful. Then
he fell to and cleared off the table. When
the last crur9b had been eaten he pulled
out pipe and filed and lighted it and
said to me:
IF you lie to me I'll skin you alive!
Where does the old man keep his money!"
pointed to the barrel. and he walked
over to it and uttered shout of surprise
and delight. To make things plain to you,
l want to relate what had happened to my
uncle. Four men, three of whom were
strangers to that locality, had formed a
plot to rob him. They had taken posses
sion of an old shanty in the woods mile
away, and one of them had written the
letter as decoy. As he came along on his
way to town he was seized and taken to
the shanfv By threatS of torture they