The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1896-11-19
Thieves NEATLY TRAPPED.

landlord of the hotel told us that
thieves were plenty, and if they were
cornered they might stick their knives
into people. Our room in the little tav'
ern was q kind of summer house at
fair, out in the yard, with a door on
each of two sides, and was only few
feet up from the ground on kind OF
platform veranda. We had several
hundred dollars which we had collected
and the safest place we could put it was
in our satchels in our room.
''For wonder the doors had locks on
them, but the upper part of the doorwas
made in Venetian shutter style, and o
man with long arm could, by stretch
Ing, probably reach the lock. We
weren't very much afraid, and merely
locked the doors without noticing the
shutter part at all. Besides, it was dark
when we went to bed, as we didn't want
q light to attract the insects. We slept
without disturbance until the first
gray streaks of dawn, and then we
were awakened by a queer noise at the
doors.
eve suspected thieves at once, and.
rs quiet as mice, we slipped out OF bed
and began to reconnoiter. When got
to my door it kind of gave me the crceps
to see dirty yellow hand thrust through
the shutter and itself downward
toward the lock, and Il was tempted tc
veil and scare the marauder away.
However, kept my nerve, and in
second or two it was strangely fascinat'
ing to watch the efforts of the hand tc
reach the lock. My partner was having
the same kind of an experience, and the
thieves were evidently intending to take
MS 'a-comin' an a-gwine.'
1--WE stood irresolute for minute
and then my partner made signito me
to hand him an old lariat hanging OF
the wall. This in second he had
Hoped at each end, and saw the trick
The next minute we had hand apiece
looped at each end of the rope, an:
had pulled it tight inside. Everything
had been perfectly still up to this time
and now it was stiller than ever. dc
not know what the thieves thought hae
happened to them, but they wer'
caught and as soon as we got the ropt
knotted we let go, and they discovered
that they were tied together and there
wasn't any way for them to get away
unless one of them pulled the Other
through the knot-hole, so to speak.
''Then it became funny, and we sat
there nearly splitting, but never max
ing sound. In a minute or two more
we could see another hand coming
through with long, ugly knife in it
trying to cut the rope holding the first
hand, but we had drawn them fa1
through, and the other hand could not
reach. OF course we expected now tc
hear yell, and have some kicking and
other disturbances, but the stoicism Of
the Indian was in them, and they never
spoke a sound until the landlord him
, self spoke to them when he came tc
. wake us up.
That was two hours or more later
and we Lad in the meantime gone back
to bed to finish our morning nap, trust.
ing to luck that they wouldn't get away.
The landlord, when he discovered them.
| made more noise in minute than all
four of us had made since the act began,
and when we got up it was to find our
garden house surrounded by half the
population of the town, and the two
thieves sticking to our doors as if they
bad been nailed there and nobody able
to get them loose -Washington Star.