The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1895-07-18
THE BANK MYSTERY.

of England were much puzzled and
not a little amused when the secretary
| read to them at their usual sitting the
following ill-spelt and somewhat curl
Gus letter:
1.-TWO gentlimin off Bank England:
Yoo thing VOW is all safe hand you're
| Bank his safe, butt / knows bettur. l
| bin hinside thee Bank the last 2 mites
hand VOW nose muffin abowt it. Butt
hum mott a thief, so hif yeO will NETT
NEE in the greet squar rom werh arl
the money! is, at twelf 2 mite lie
iXsplain orl to yeow. Lett oney l hor
2 cum alOwn and say muffin 2 nobody.
-"Jno. Sniff"
The detectives looked grave. There
was a plot at work, they saw, and
with their usual penetration they at
once penetrated the deepest depths of
the iniquity.
There is a very large room under
ground, where the huge wealth of the
bank is Representations of English
sovereigns, bars of gold and hundred
weights of silver, with myriads of
notes to an incalculable amount.
The detectives of course knew that
this" room must be the place which the
writer of the letter had designated as
"the gret squar rom"
No one from outside could enter, but
of course the police well understood
| the trick. There must be some con-
federate within the bank, and one of
the conspirators, being more cowardly
than the rest, had resolved to betray
his fellows to save himself.
All night long detectives were Sc
creted in the room but they saw moth
ing and heard nothing, with the ex-
ception that some said they heard
about one or two o'clock a strange
sound which they could not account
for.
The next night was the same, and
the next, and the next; and when the
"bOard day" of the bank came around
the directors would have treated the
affair as an idle attempt TO frighten
them had not their attention been
more strongly called to the subject by
the following incident:
A heavy chest had been forwarded
by the Parcels Delivery company, di-
rected to the DIRECTORS of the Bank
of England" The chest was of cours
opened before them at once, such a
thing being very unusual, and found to
contain a large packet of most valua-
bic papers and securities, which had
been safely deposited in the vault.
With them was the following letter:
"TO the directors of the Bank of
England-Gentlemen: My husband,
who is an honest man, wrote to you
last week and told you he had found
a way, which he believes is known
only to himself, of getting into your
strong room, and offered, if you would
meet him there tonight, to explain
the whole matter.
H has never taken anything from
that room except the enclosed box.
You set detectives upon him, and he
took the box to show that he could
go there if he chose.
HI gives you another chance. Let
a few gentlemen be in the room alone
and my husband will meet you there
at midnight. Yours very respectfully,
Ellen Smith.
The only thing that was evident was
that the writer. ELLEN Smith," was a
better scholar than her husband. The
detectives were shown the letter and
acted accordingly. The cleverest men
We're posted in the room.
In the morning they told n strange
story. They said they saw a light at
about IL o'clock. 1t seemed to come
from a dark lantern; out directly they
ran to the spot from whence the light
proceeded it went out and the strictest
search had discovered nothing.
Every night the strictest watch was
set, but nothing turned up until, on
the morning when the next sitting of
the board was to be held, another let
ter was found upon the table of the
strong room. How it got there, con
sidering the was guarded day
and night, was a mystery. Its con-
tents We're as follows:
at was for you own good hat you
were warned that the strong room of
the bank is not really safe. At any
time any one can enter it. If we
wished to steal we certainly would
eve have told you about it or re-
turned that box.
eff the police are there tonight we
will never explain the easy way of
getting into your strong room, but
most likely some one else will let you
know that we told the truth when they
help themselves to what is there.
"E. s."
There were two things perfectly evil
dent-One, that the writer of the let
ter really had acces in some mysteri-
Gus way to the strong room and the
other that he had discovered that the
police had been put upon his track.
SO it was determined that some of
the directors, who could conveniently
do So, should visit the strong room at
the time indicated in the letter.
The plan was carried out. But, as
might be expected, the directors were
not alone. The police had advised
them toe well for that; and half a
dozen of the best detectives were in
such a way that any M would have
supposed that they formed one group.
They waited there the whole night
long, but nothing was seen or heard.
Their labor was in vain. About four
O'Clock in the morning the detectives
whispered that it was needless for the
gentlemen to remain any longer; they
themselves would wait as long as the
gentlemen chose. but the hour for
breaking into that strongest of all
strong rOOms-if it could be broken
into at all-waS long past.
The next morning the board held an
extraordinary meeting, in order to dis
cuSS the result of the efforts of the
gentlemen who had been all night in
the vault. After a long argument
about nothing, a porter entered with
a letter, which he stated had been
found on the table in the strong room.
1t ran as follows:
"Iou can do ass yeou like. Lars
L rfrIt Il I@,1 NJ.