Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1894-02-10
AN OBLIGING BANKER


lar. His theory was that if a man
wished to make a success OF his pro-
feSsion, he needed to use his brains
rather than his muscle. The conse
Quence was that Billy, by strict at
eention to business and the endeavor
20 please customers, soon began to
build up for himself an enviable repu.
tation among the police. They never
caught sight of Billy or his pals, but
they always recognized his handiwork
BY the neatness and dexterity 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 detective Of that
name, who was especially good at
tracking crimes OF a kind whose
origin was obscure and the clue to
which was not visible They said
among themselves, when their at
tention was first directed to the kind
Of burglary the new burglar was do
ing, that this was q job Billy Haven
would like the unravelling of if he
we're alive, and so they drifted on,
never getting sight of the burglar,
until the crimes were called Chilly
Haven jobs" and finally the un-
known craftsman came to be called
Billy Haven.
AS general thing, where Billy
Haven was at work the inmates of
the house never knew a robbery had
been committed until next mo ming.
Billy and his gang left almost no
traces Of their visit except the disap-
pearance Of the most valuable things
in the residence. At last these neat
burglaries ceased, and there were no
traces of Billy for years 1t is proba-
BILE that the authorities would never
have known any particulars about
Billy's career if it had not been that
convict dying In one of the prisons
told about Billy's last and successful
coup which enabled Haven and his
gang 10 retire into respectable but
monotoneus private life.
; Billy, it seems, had long looked
with hungering eyes on large man
sioE that stood in q lonely part of a
lonely suburb It was entirely sur
rounded by high brick wall, and
Billy felt that il he and his mates
ever got inside that mansion they
could work In uninterrupted security
Inquiry showed Billy that it was the
residence of Mr.. Slider, the we'll
known banker, man intimately COLI
nected with numerous prosperous
companies, and a man of great re-
puted wealth. BiIly's Investigations
led him to the knowledge that Mr..
Slider was a most careful man who
had arranged every electrical appli-
ance then known for the discovery of
o burglar.
He appeared to realize that if once
o burglar got entrance into the big
house the family would be, COMPARE
lively speaking, at his mercy, and so
it was that every window was pro-
tected by haIf-a-dozen different de-
vices. The door-mats and passages
were so arranged that after everybody
went to bed the lightest football on
any of them would ring q large bell
in the tower, would telegraph a
warning to the nearest police-station,
and would set more gongs ringing all
ever the place than q burglar who
was at all nervous cared to hear.
Billy realized then that the ordi-
n1rV methods Of a burglar would have
Q tendency 70 fail il applied to the
big house standing in It's own exten
sive grounds, and so he resolved that
when he and his pals entered the
house it would be by the door and not
BIZ one OF the windows and it would
be aG a time when the family had not
retired to rest
Billy's plans, when matured, were
very simple. He obtained the COS
tune OF a police inspector for himself
and the clothes Of an ordinary police
man for each Of his foLf pals He
got, likewise, very good imitation
OF a warrant for arrest made out in
the name of Mr. Slider. Billy was
the man of brains In the gang. and
the other four realizing this, did ex
Hctly as he told them They were il
De feet state Of discipline, and haG
the utmost confidence In Billy's In
0anuiNv 1ShA rlAD WAS this.