The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-08-12
The WdU OF the Trans0r6SSOr.
by HOWARD FIELDING.
rcopuIrh. 1906. by tn. Bachelor syndicate,


knew that the men would surely come,
and that they would be right on time
If he could hold us SO long. we were
trapped.
$50 he began TO hunt through his desk
very carefuily-and slowly--for the
scrap on which the combination was
written. Every now and then his face
would brighten up, and he'd seize upon
a bit OF paper. Then he'd say: Dear
me, dear me; was sure this was IL.
But IL isn't. Now, where can il be%
And he'd adjust his glasses on the
bridge of his nose, and beam upon us
benevolently before proceeding with
the search. i was completely taken in,
/ made up my mind that the colonel was
a queer old crank who had made up his
mind that his hundred thousand was as
good as gone, and was taking it mighty
easy, being satisfied t. save his skin.
But Danny got impatient by and by, and
he began TO help the colonel hunt, rip
ping things out of the desk and throwing
them on the floor The colonel re-
monstrated with him in the politest pos
sible style, bat Danny never could stand
politeness; he hadn't been brought ND
TO il. So he told the colonel TO find
that memorandum in one minute or
we'd tie him neck end heels, STUFF a
handkerchief down his throat, and then
bls-v up the safe. The colonel asked to
see the handkerchief and Danny got out
his old red bandanna, whereupon Tracy
weakened, and produced the memoran-
dunn. Then we all went out into the
cashiers room where the safe was.
"We had lost three-quarters of an hour
TINT way, and Danny wasted ten more
minutes in impressing upon the
soloners mind the fact that he would
get shot If he attempted TO raise
rumpus. Then Danny walked up to th
safe with the memorandum in his hand
but before trying it he gave pull ~
the handle of the safe door, and by TN
jumping Jupiter the thing wasn'
locked! The language that Danny
threw Off of his mind when he fouut
that out would have bored a hole In an
ordinary old-fashioned safe. Tn,
colonel read him quite lecture about
1t; but Danny wasn't paying much at
tention to reform just then. He had
opened the safe and was studying the
inner doors which were the hardest and
tho strongest tfHt ever saw IN n safe OF
that size.
"They opened by means of key fit
ting into a slot in the center of n round
knob like the combination knob ON the
outside. There's no picking such a
hot ha yni1 nav
he hadn't key, but he thought that
there was one in the cashiers desk.
He'd rather we'd use il, he said, than
break the safe. So we opened the
cashiers desk, and the colonel found
the key for us, Let me tell you the
trick that he played right there. AS
matter of fact, ne had key in his
pocket, and, of course, we'd have gone
through him and got it, If ne hadn't
been so free about showing us where
the other was. Now this key in the
desk was cracked right across, although
the break didn't show, and the colonel,
knowing that the lock worked rather
hard, was in hopes that the key would
break in it. IL it did, we'd have to bore
through the door, and that would take
time.
"Well, 1t all happened just as he haG
planned. The key broke and the piece
stuck in the lock, so that we couldn't
pull IL out. / never saw man so mad
as Danny was. But hpthing could stop
him then. He got out his drills and
went TO work like steam engine. In
little less than an hour he had those
doors open, and he didn't use any ex-
plosive, either. noticed that the colo
mel got a little nervous when he saw
how well Danny was getting along;
and at the last he kept looking at his
watch and smoking very hard.
ut was twenty minutes to twelve
when the doors swung open. There
waS the little black bag, and saw the
colonel look at IL as a schoolboy looks
at an apple when bigger boy has
snatched il away from him. Danny
put his big hand on the bag and pulled
il out of the safe. 1t was locked, but
he wrenchcd it open.
Empty he croalted; and he was
too hard hit to swear.
"Col. Tracy came up out of his chair
as IL Danny had exploded his whole
safe-olowing outfit under IL. He forgot
entirely that i was covering him with
a gun, and had promised over and over
again 10 shoot him IL he moved All he
thought about was that bag. He
grabbed it out of Danny's hands, and
pretty nearly turned the thing inside