The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1893-12-18

on the opposite side Of the street at the
moment, and as the Hagstones appeared
to lift up under his feet he thought 1t
en- explosion of sewer gas.
cannot remember that ] heard the
explosion. simply remember of being
lifted up and hurled forward. The next
thing knew was sitting mp with
hand over either ear, and the room was
in midnight darkness. felt 30 stupid
and dased that it was many minutes be-
fore could place myself. The gag
was out. of my mouth, and the ropes
with which l had been bound to tbs
chair were hanging loosely on my arms
and legs. When began To feel around
to see where was, discovered that
was close to the wire gate by which all
employees entered the bank inclosure.
The door of the vault was almost on a
line with this gate, but 60 feet away.
Between the gate and the vault were
the compartments of bookkeeper, pay
ing teller, receiving teller and discount
clerk, each rallied off with wood or
wire.
You can judge Of the strength Of that
blast when | tell you that everything In
that GO feet was leveled, the small safe
blown over and the counters twisted
like rail fence. AS soon rs realized
the situation groped for a match and
lighted gas jet, though the room was
80 full of powder smoke that it was some
time before could see foot frcm my
nose. got to the police wire just in
time to send in the 8 o'clock signal. l
meant to send in the signal for helr
but just as | touched the button de-
cided TO wait bit. When the smoke
lifted so that could get about, | light
ed more gas and then looked for the
burglars. One of them lay in heap
against the front door, a second under
the counter near where 1 had picked
myself up. and the third | could not
find, though ! knew he must be under
the vault door, which had been blown
OFF and lay on the floor.
The man at the front door was stone
dead. The doctors said that his body
must have swept down all the railings
and partitions as he was hurled for
ward. The man under the counter be-
gan to show signs of life as l overhaul
ed him, and thinking he might prove
troublesome tied him hand and foot.
You will wonder that was not severe
ly hurt, but that was the chances of ac-
cident. The chair was completely
wrecked, but | got off with three or
four painful bruises. The man under
the counter had his nose broken, two
ribs fractured and received bad scalp
wound, but he had no sooner recovered
consciousness than he began to struggle
and curse. When told him that both
his partners were dead, he was awed to
silence for awhile. Then he said to me:
This has been bad nights work,
and wish to heaven had not been in
the job Have you sent in a police
alarm YETI
mo" ...
lyon are brave, level headed fel-
low. You have saved the bank from
robbery, got two dead men here to ex
hibit, and hope you will let me so.
promise yen that l will lead an honest
life from this time on"
''Odds isthe difference to rue whether
you are hon est or dishonest, | replied.
''But will make it an object to
you. Let me go, and ! will put $500
in your hands within "a hours"
WHAT. Only $500 for bank bur-
glar on whom there may be reward
of 50, 000."
My good friend, will make it
$1,000. You are a poor man, and Sl,-
900 will be little fortune to you
Couldn't you raise it to 10000" |
asked. appearing to have my price.
1.-Two thousand! Two thousand!" he
repeated. If do, my poor old moth
er may have to want for bread, but be-
ing you are such brave and sensible
fellow I'll do it. Yes, I'll say SO, 900,
and you shall have the money inside of
two days. Hurry up and unite me, for
it must be near daylight"
stepped over to tine police wire and
sent in the signal. HELP wanted at
once" Ii had never been sent liz be-
fore. nor have the words gone over that
wire since. In five minutes there were
four blnecoats knocking at the door,
anu WuIu L ttt tItiu
greeted them with jeers and curses and
swore he would get even with me if it
took a hundred years.
Williams, us have told you, was
kneeling at the dooc when the explosion
occurred. Wc found him under il,
crushed and burned and bearing little
semblance TO human being. The one
who escaped with his life was sent up
for l2 years, and thus the trio were
wiped out. have an old scrapboolz in
which is pasted various newspaper ar
ticles speaking in my praise, but it's
not much consolation TO read them. The
bank officials knew that | must have
been asleep on duty, and instead of pat
ting mo on the back and raising my
wages they waited about month and
then gave me the grand bounce. Per-
haps ] had better taken the burglars
So, 900 and let him go. What do you
think?