The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1894-01-25
OBLIGING BANKER

billy Haven was no ordinary burg.
His theory was that if a man
shed to make a success OF his pro-
sion. he needed to use his brains
her than his muscle. The cOnse-
encc was that Billy, by strict at
hilton to business and the cndeavor
please customers, soon began to
d Up for himself an enviable repu-
kion among the police. They never
hight sight of Billy or his pals. but
cy always recognized his handiwork
y the neatness and deXterity Of it.
hey did not even know his name,
they called him among them
Ives Billy Haven, out Of respect for
e memory Of a detective Of that
lme, who was especially good at
acking crimes OF a kind whose
kigin was obscure and the clue to
Inch was not visible. They said
non! themselves, when their at
kntion was first directed to the kind
burglary the new burglar was do
*, that this was a job Billy Haven
'ould like the u%nravelling of If he
tere alive, and 20 they drifted on,
lever getting Il sight of the burglar,
)ntil the crimes were called ''Bllly
tayen jobs" and finally the un-
Known cracksman came to be called
Billy Haven.
As a general thing, where Billy
Haven was at work the inmates Of
|he house never knew a robbery had
been committed until next mo ming.
Billy and his gang left almost no
traces of their >is t except the disap-
p~earance Of the most valuable things
IN the residence. AT last these neat
Durglaries ceased, and there were no
of Billy for years. 1t is proba-
that the authorities would never
known an particulars about
Billy's career if it had not been that
convict dying IN n of the prisons
odd about Billy'S last and successful
Cup which enabled Haven and his
gang to retire into respectable but
n0notonouS private life.
Billy, it seems, had long looked
With hungering eyes on a large man.
'ioE that stood in a lonely part OF a
onely suburb. 1t was entirely sur
'ounded by a high brick wall, and
Billy felt that il he and his mates
got inside that mansion they
work In uninterrupted security.
inquiry showed Billy that it was the
'esidence of Mr.. Slider, the we'll
Known banker, a man intimately con-
with numerous pros erOuS
.'0mpanieS, and a man of great re-
)utcd wealth. Billy's Investigations
ed him to the knowledge that MI.
slider was q most careful man who
lad arranged every electrical appli-
ihce then known for the discovery Of
/ burglar.
lie appeared to realize that if once
I burglar got entrance into the big
house the family would be, COMPARE
-i'elY speaking, at his mercy, and so
u was that every window was pro-
,ected by half-a-dOZen different de-
wees. The dOor-matS and passages
we're SO arranged that after everybody
vent to bed the lightest football on
any OF them would ring a large bell
II the tower, would telegraph a
warning to the nearest police-station,
would set more gongs ringing all
)Ver the place than a burglar who
Was at all nervous cared to hear.
Billy realized then that the ordi-
methods of a burglar would have
4 tendency TO fail if applied to the
oig house standing in its own extern
'ive grounds, and so he resolved that
"hen he and his pals entered the
mousse 1t would be by the door and not
ny one OF the windows, and it would
oe al a time when the family had not
to rest.