River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1896-11-19
THIEVES NEATLY TRAPPED.
Peculiar Construction of Mexican Doors
Put Them In Their Plight.

Peculiar Construction of Mexican Doors
Put Them In Their Plight.
Last April / was down in Mexico"
said a travelling salesman, ION bust
ness trip, and one night my partner and
| had to remain over in small place
about so miles out of Mexico city. 1t
wasn't such bad place either, but The
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 kind of summer house af-
fair, out in the yard, with q door OH
each of two sides, and was only few
feet up from the ground on a kind or
a 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
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, II was dark
when we went TO bed, as we didn't want
a light to attract the insects. We slept
without disturbance until the first
gray streaks of dawn, and then we
were awakened by queer noise at the
doors.
1--WE 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 creeps
20 see dirty yellow hand thrust through
the shutter and stretch itself downward
toward the lock, and | was tempted TO
yell and scare the marauder away.
However, | kept my nerve, and in a
second or two il was strangely fascinat-
ing to watch the efforts of the hand to
reach the lock. My partner was having
the same kind of an experience, and the
thieves were evidently intending to take
us 'a-comin' an a-gwine.'
1--WE stood irresolute for minute,
and then my partner made a sign to me
TO hand him an old lariat hanging on
the wall. This in second he had
looped at each end, and saw the trick.
The next minute we had a hand apiece
Hoped at each end of the rope, and
had pulled it tight inside. Everything
had been perfectly still up to this time,
and now it was stiller than ever. do
not know what the thieves thought had
happened to them, but they were
caught and as soon as we got the rope
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 l0not-hole, so to speak.
'Then it became funny, and we sat
there nearly splitting, but never maxi
ing a sound. In a minute or two more
we could see another hand coming
through with long, ugly knife in il,
trying to cut the rope holding the first
hand, but we had drawn them far
through, and the other hand could not
reach. OF course we expected now TO
hear yell. and have some kicking and
other disturbances, but the stoicism of
the Indian was in them, and they never
spoke sound until the landlord him
self spoke to them when he came 10
wake us up.
That was two hours or more later,
and we had in the meantime gone back
to bed to finish our morning nap, trust
ing to luck that they wouldn'tget away.
The landlord, when he discovered them.
made more noise in a minute than all
four of us had made since the act began,
and when we got up il 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
had been nailed there and nobody able
TO get them loose. Washington Star.