Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-12-21
A DETECTIVE'S YARN.

1T is not very often,' said De-
tectlYe Riley, that detective is
forced to assume disguise to get
information, but so netimes it is
absolutely necessary. The last
time that 1 had to go Into den of
thieves in bogus Character was
good many years ago, and | had a
rather lively experience and enough
OF excitement to stand me until the
end of my days.
We received a report of the es-
cape of crook from the Charles
town prison, and from what the
authorities had been able to gather
it was supposed that the convict
had come to this city. They sent
a description of the man, aud the
only thing that saw was of any
use that on the m mau's right arm
were the initials "a. t. with a flag
bove, the anchor below, them in
India Ink. l looked over our rec
ords and found that we had there
the pedigree Of Abe Taylor, and
he had the same marks Oh his night
arm. The rest Of the description
that we had did not tally very
closely with the one sent from
ChrIestown, but | thought there
was good ground for the belief that
the escaped convict was Taylor,
who was one of the most successful
jall breakers in the country.
In order to be certain of the
identity of the convict L went TO
CharlestOwn. l found that the
man had been convicted under the
name Of John Smith for the robbery
of the Plttsfeld bank, and the
work was in line with the business
usually touched of by Taylor. |
took run over to Pittsfed got
description of the two men who
had done the bank out of SlGO, 900
and became convinced that the
man who had been shot and ar
rested and who escaped was Abe
Taylor. and that his partner was
Jerry Connors.
knew that [ was up against a
stiff game, and on the train from
Boston l laid ont a plan which |
thought would give me a show to
get on the track of the men. Abe
and jerry I knew were partners
with Patsy Slade, who ran no
torlous fence and dlYe IN Wash
ington street near Canal, and l
made up my mind that some time
or other the pair of them would
land in Slides plac'. | de-
cided that my rongest hold would
be TO get with Slade and his gang
on their own terms. | knew the
risk I was taking, for the gang
were about the toughest set OF
thugs and assasslns in the city and
would not hesitate to slit mans
wien IN a second upon the slight
est prOvocatiOn. | put up a scheme
which thought would beat their
game, and it worked to the queens
taste.
When l reached the city, | had
myself arrested for fictitious crime
and was tried and sent TO the
Blackwell Island penltentiary in q
perfectly regular way, with th'
assistance, of course, OF Recorder
Hackett. The warden in th'
penltentiary knew my game snd
aided me in carrying out the busi
, ness. After [ had been locked III
a few days l made my escape frou
the Island after dark. The mex
day the newspapers contained
thrilling account of my escape, ant
the story was that dug my wa.
, out OF my cell and swan across tn
river to this city. l must have
had a terrible time, as the paper
told it, bat as a matter of fact
q crossed the river in a boat, and th'
I story was given out to make III
+ solid IN the work had laid ou
TO do.
When [ reached the city, 1t wa
> dark, and l walked down to Slade'
1 dive in cOnvIct's rig, which ha
been soaked with water to carr,
out my scheme. l sent boy int
s the dive to get Slade to come to me
r and l told him the story of my es
j. cape, aud said that thief who ha
f started to get away with me, bu
had lost his nerve when it came t
d taking the swim, had told me tia
s, when we reached the city we cOul
d 90 to SHADES and put up until th
sr thing blew oyer.
8, Slade was very cautious. d
le felt my clothing and took me in