Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1893-06-15

lar. Ills CneOry was unaJ IL
TX man wished to make a success OF
N his profession he needed to use
his brain rather than his muscle
1t was all right enough, when
starting out to commit a burglary, to
take knife with you, or loaded club
or pistol, but Billy claimed that the
doing of this showed lack of mental
ingenuity. Any muscularfool can blud-
geon the senses out of a half awakened
householder aroused from his first deep
sleep by the noisy entrance of a thief
through the kitchen window, but blud-
geoning Billy looked upon as clumsy
and unnecessary. The consequence was
that Billy, ty strict attention to bust
ness, and the endeavor to please custom
ers, soon began to build up for himself
an enviable reputation among the police.
They never caught sight of Billy or his
pals, but they always recognized his
handiwork by the neatness and dexteri-
ty of it. They did not even know his
name, but they called him among them
selves Billy Haven out of respect for the
memory of a detective of that name,
who was especially good at tracking
crimes of kind whose origin was OBJ
scure, and the clue to which was not
visible. They said among themselves,
when their attention was firstdirected to
the kind of burglary the new burglar
was doing, that this was a job Billy
Haven would like the unraveling of if he
were alive, and so they drifted on, never
getting a sight of the burglar, until the
crimes were called Billy Haven jobs, and
finally the unknown craftsman came to
be called Billy Haven.
AS a general thing, where Billy Haven
was at work, the inmates of the house
never knew robbery had been commit
ted until next morning. Billy and his
gang left almost no trace of their visit
except the disappearance of the most
valuable things in the residence.
At last these neat burglaries ceased
and there were no traces of Billy's for
years. 1t is probable that the authori-
ties would never have known any par
ticu ars about Billy's career if it had not
been that a convict dying in one of the
prisons told about Billy's last and sue
cessful coup, which enabled Haven and
his gang to retire into respectable, but
monotous private life.
Billy, it seems, had long looked with
hungering eyes on large mansion that
1t was entirely surrounded by high
brick wall, and Billy felt that if he and
his mates ever got inside that mansion
they could work in uninterrupted Sc
curity.
Inquiry showed Billy that it was the
residence of Mr.. Slider, the we'll known
banker, man intimately connected
with numerous prosperous companies,
and man of great reputed wealth. The
name of Slider was power in the city.
Biily's Investigations led him to the
knowledge that Mr.. Slider was a most
careful man, who had arranged every
electrical appliance then known for the
discovery of burglar. He appeared to
realize that if once a burglar got en-
trance into the big house the family
would be, comparatively speaking, at
his mercy; and so it was that every win
dow was protected by half dozen diff
ferent devices. The door mats and VIM
dows were so arranged that after every
body went to bed the lightest football
on any of them would light all the cleo
trio lamps in the house; would ring a
large bell in the tower; would telegraph
a warning to the nearest police station
and would set more gOngs ringing all
over the place than burglar who was
at all nervous cared to hear.
Billy realiz ID then that the ordinary
methods of burglar would have ten
dency to fail if applied to the big house
standing in its own extensive grounds.
and so he resolved that when he and his
pals entered the house it would be by
the door and not by one Of the windows,
and it would be at time when the FAM
ly had not retired to rest.
Billy's plans. when matured, were
very simple. He obtained the costume
of a police inspector for himself and the
clothes of an ordinary policeman for
each of bis four pals. He got. likewise.
a very good imitation of a warrant Of ar
rest, made out in the name of Mr.. Sill
der. Billy was the man of brains in the
gang, and the other four, realizing this,
did exactly as he told them They were
in perfect state of discipline and bad
the utmost confidence in Billy's ingenui-
ty. The plan was this: They were to OBJ
tain entrance into the louise at aboa
O'Clock in the evening, in perfect legal
form the Inspector was to arrest Mr..
Slider, who might of course, be indig-
mont hut the Commentators expected that