The herald., 1896-05-03

| near RdlIN call lOl sHCip, " 90 ANo
| ard, one arm about her waist, the othci
across her neck
Then he saw red with a spring ne
was almost upon him. Howard nad
dropped the girl and caught pottie
with which he struck at Noble neau'
When the latter recovered conscious
ness Patty had washed the blood away,
but not a scar. Twenty years have not
eliminated it.
In a week Noble was dealing cards as
alphabetically as before. Meanwhile
! Howard had received letter begging
him, on matter of great personal int
| portance, to come at once TO a place
near Flatbush. with which he was IA
| miliar. From that moment he disap-
| peared Subsequently, near the out
skirts of Yonkers, his body was found.
! a pistol shot in his head, bullet in his
| heart. 1t was thought that he had
| killed himself, but examination discloS-
| ed another bullet which had been fired
from a distance through the back of his
| handsome head. There were surmises.
| but even the amateur detectives were
| unable to invent a clue.
| But though the man had gone, the So
luton which he had reached remained.
On Sunday morning, when Shevelin
was on duty, two men were admitted to
the bank. Howards prescription was
| tried and found to work like charm.
| The doors of the vault opened and be-
| tween those men booty to the amount OF
| six million there was at most but few
! inches of steel.
The visitors, however. had merely
| come to reconnoitre, to calculate few
! details; how long, for instance. 1t would
| take to crack the safes: how long to
| enter the bank. open the vault and. the
safes cracked, to gather the securities
and be off. Being agile and precise in
mathematics, they estimated that it
| GrrN fnc n
the entire place and get away.
1t was then arranged that the opera
| ton should take place on the following
Sunday. But incidentally an accident
occurred. When returning the tumblers
of the lock to their proper position and
Concealing the hole made beneath the
combination plate with putty, it was
found that through some mischance one
of the tumblerS was turned the wrong
way. and. though the door. to all appear
anceS. was then locked as before, tneY
did not need to be burglars to know that
the next morning the cashier would be
| unable to work the combination, the
hole would be discovered, suspicion
aroused. the lock changed. no doubt.
new precautions taken and all their beau
tiful labor gone for naught.
And, as a matter of fact, on the NOR
row, when the door was finally opened,
the putty was discovered-the hole
which it was intended to conceal as we'll.
The matter was promptly reported to
the board of directors, who paid no at
tention to it whatever.
The ears of those visitors, however,
were tolerably acute, and detecting no
rumor of menace of danger. they prompt
ly got to business again and perfected
their plans.
Those plans We're, after entering the
building. to bind and gag the janitor. Il
little old man, who occupied room on
h, md ~ a
to provide a fake janitor, who, while
they were at work, could be busting
about in full view of the street.
The fake janitor, dressed in linen
coat and provided with side whiskers
such as the real janitor wore. was sub
ordinate with the villainous, Dickens
esque name of Abe Coakley, who. how
ever, seems to have played his little part
with entire sang froid and effect. y
roundsman passing the bank on the
morning of the robbery saw him dust
ing at the window. nodded to him ana
was gratitied with a nod in return.
But that little performance had per-
haps been anticipated. and with it. in
any event, the duty of informing the
gang when a barber. whose shop was
| under the bank and whom any noise
| would alarm. should appear 1t was
! the custom of this barber to enter his
| shop on Sunday morning at o'clock. 1t
was calculated that if the bank was en-
| tered after the night Waterman mad
gone. at 6, there would be just the neces-
| sary time in which to do the job.
The job itself was to be performed by
| Hope. with the aid of a subordinate
named Goodie. These two were to open
the safes, while Banjo Pete and police
man named Nugent We're to stand guard
! revolver in hand.
This program was practically ad-
| hered to. on the morning of sunday,
1 - tIo ot1ly Iy-oc on
! the janitor bound and gagged, two safes
! We're opened. three million dollars at the
| rate of 500. 900 a minute was abStracted
! a third safe was about to be opened, IN
| which there were three million more,
when the fake janitor announced that the
! barber. fully one-half hour before his
! usual time. was entering the shop below.
Hope and Goodie put down their tools,
| the fake janitor resumed his normal ap-
| pearance the policeman and the eX-
| minstrel star pocketed their revolvers
| and in two minutes the band had clsap
| peared.
Three hours later the janitor had sue
| ceeded in loosening his bonds and the
alarm was given. When the police came
| there were two empty safes ana neat
| kit of tools of Birmingham manufacture
| to tell them they had come too late.
1t was at this juncture that Inspector
| Byrnes appeared and presently, with
| that acumen which has made him the
| foremost inquisitor of the age, began
playing with Shevelin and continued to
| play until that wretched oaf, VINO, IN
| stead of the Ell Dorado of quarter OF a
| million dollars. had received but $o0o,
| split on his pals.
1t may be, fortune favoring. that ne
| would have got more, for while, barring
| $40 600 or $40 900 in cash. the rest of the
| booty was all in bonds. of which the sale
could be stopped, yet it was assumed
that the bank would prefer TO ransom
| those at say fifty cents on the dollar
than to lose them entirely. The pank
! however, did nothing of the KIND. II ap-
! realed to the government, the dupncate
| securities bill passed, and the loss 10 the
institution practically nullfied
But fancy the loss to Mr.. Hope
Fancy, too, the injury to his feelings
Yet that. comparatively speaking, was
little to the shock caused by the sham
bling Shevelin's detection for that cos
MI Hope a 20-year sentence ana MS
| copfederates nearly as much.
Meanwhile Noble had vanished. the
dovecot was untenanted and of the Sc
curities there was not a trace.
| Though Noble had vanished and Fat
ty had disappeared and the rest of thu
gang We're in prison, there were peo
pie fanciful enough to maintain tha
sooner or later those securities would b'
forthcoming. From the evidence ad
duced at the trial it appeared that whei
the band dispersed at the bank, Nugen
was in charge of the booty and that h
Hope. What did Hope do with it
| hI1t