davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The herald., 1896-05-31

how could they have opened the safe and
how did you get upon their track? Above
all. want you to tell me what on earth
you meant by saying all that rubbish
about the earthquake and the devlled lob
ster. Now is the time to show me that you
still have your senses about you."
The old man laughed silently before he
answered.
"You are right, Mr.. Dennisson, in de-
mandtng an explanation, and wonder that
you have been patient as long as you have.
The whole thing must have seemed without
head or tail to you. and must confess that
l have enjoyed very much the mystifica-
tion which you and your friend Wolcot have
labored under. l will now explain the
whole matter from first to last and make
every point SO plain to you that you will
wonder you did not understand it before"
At that moment the door bell rang and a
servant brought me a telegram. / opened
it and read as follows:
Havana, Cuba, December 3, 1894.
Geo. e. Dennisson-Have been drugged
and kidnapped. Arrived here this after
noon. Return next steamer. Is bank all
right?
LEWIS McKEEVER."
There you are!'' exclaimed Benjamin.
That's about the thing that I expected.
That finishes the case. Everything is now
accounted for"
Rather say" said l. "that 1t makes
everything more complicated
mot at all, as you will soon see. ! will
now commence at the very beginning and,
in five minutes, will make everything as
clear as crystal. This has been a very
singular, in fact, an extraordinary case,
and, for that reason, it has been far from a
difficult one. Your difficult cases are the
ones which do not possess any singularity,
which are perfectly plain and ordinary,
and whose circumstances present nothing
which would excite attention. This case
had SO many things about 1t which were
queer and bizarre that one was Immediate
ly furnished with an abundance of clues
for getting at the truth. When say that
1t was not difficult mean that it was not
difficult when man approached the prob
lem who had fair modicum of brains and
a respectable amount of reasoning power,
Though, dare say, that this very strange
ness of the data, which gives to me such
an advantage. would offer to the muddled
brains of the oflcial detectives the greatest
obstacle.
when you first detailed the matter to
me. and told me that you sought my ser
vices with the wish to show that McKeever
was innocent of the crime, decided, in the
first place, to take the cashiers innocence
for granted, and to work the matter out
with that idea settled in my mind. If ]
failed to establish this, there was no haria
done, and what was the use of showins
him to be the culprit. when was hired for
something else? You will see that, in this
way, the extent Of my field of operations
The herald., 1896-05-31

At half-past seven that night ! was sum-
moned to the visitors room of the club,
and found Benjamin waiting for me. He
seemed to be in great good humor. He
was somewhat excited and chuckled to HIM
self with satisfaction.
'If you want to assist personally in the
capture Of the person or persons who rob-
bed the Jefferson bank" said he, "get your
things on and come at once. l have car
riage waiting and not a minute is to be
lost"
"You are sure you are not on the wrong
track?" asked incredulously.
II will risk my life and reputation on
1t. There is some danger in the business,
though; and it's right you should know it
before you go. Do you want to take the
risk?''
I didn't think there could be any great
amount of risk, for the reason that doubt
ed his having discovered the criminals; so,
1 told him would go and getting on my
coat, we went out to the hack.
There was a man on the box beside the
driver and two others inside the vehicle
on the front seat 1 was surprised to find
that one Of these was the bookkeeper Cur
tbs. His neighbor and the man beside the
driver, aS l. was luIOTLucu ny DcuJttlulu,
were officers in plain clothes.
We drove down to Thirtieth street and
along that thoroughfare to a point Just
east of Eighth avenue. Here the carriage
stopped, and its five passengers allghted
1--WE are going" said the old man to me.
"to a restaurant on Eighth avenue. In the
middle Of the block above us. The rest of
these people have their instructions. All
you have to do, is to go into the place
with these two officers, sit down at a table
and call for something to eat or drink. Cur
tbs and will precede you by about three
minutes. When you are in the restaurant,
you must not appear to know u.s."
The two officers and waited at the cor
ner the necessary length OF time and then
followed Benjamin and Curtis into the
building. 1t was an ordinary Eighth ave-
nue saloon and restaurant number of
small tables were placed about the room.
at one of which we took our places, order
ing at the same time some refreshments.
The place contained besides the usual re-
splendent bar, with its mirrors and its cut
glass, three or four small rooms, each fur
nished with a table and chairs for the ac-
commodation of parties who wished for
privacy. At table, quite near us, sat the
old man and the bookkeeper. They did
not look at us and have no doubt that.
to the other patrons of the place. and there
were probably half dozen Of these pres
ent. our two parties appeared to have no
connection with each other and our pres
ence there to have no meaning beyond the
ordinary one.
At about ten minutes past eight two men
came into the restaurant and, as they did
so l saw Curtis start suddenly and whis-
per to Benjamin. The new arrivals were
both men of twenty-eight or thirty. One
was tall and dark,-a good looking indi-
vidual. but with rather sinister face. The
other was trifle shorter, a handsome
blonde fellow with rosy cheeks and a fluffy
yellow moustache. Both were we'll dressed
and would pass ordinarily for gentlemen.
They went into one of the small private
rooms or alcoves already mentioned, and
called for something to drink
The herald., 1896-05-31

A SCUFFLE AND A PISTOL SHOT.
Benjamin arose and motioned to my two
companions and the three quickly stepped
to the door of the apartment. heard the
old man say:
Gentlemen! l have warrant here for
your arrest" Then there were several
oaths, scutfle and pistol shot. You may
imagine that all this created a great uproar
in the place. We all crowded around the
entrance to the small room and found that
the two strangers were already handcuifed
The dark one would have shot the detec-
tive had not the pistol been knocked out
of his hand as he fired.
After accompanying our captives to the
nearest police station and leaving them
safely fastened under lock and key took
Benjamin with me to my house and, having
seated him before the fire In my library
and having given him good cigar I said !:
''Now then, Benjamin! This thing has
gone far enough and it's time for you to
explain yourself You have arrested two
men who, judging from their demeanor.
the way they resisted arrest, ct cetera, are
criminals Of some kind or another. Who
are these men? And why do you suppose
them to be the persons who robbed the
bank? Curtis, the bookkeeper, ac-
knowledge, identifies one Of them, the dark
one, as the man who left the bank on last
"Wednesday afternoon with the cashier; but
The herald., 1896-05-31
THEN THERE WE'RE SEVERAL oATHs

THEN THERE WE'RE SEVERAL OATHS
1t seems so simple to me now.
will ask my readers, right here, to think
hard and see IL they cannot come to a faint
perception of the truth
'As l said before" continued Benjamin,
81 think that | can soon put my hands
upon the criminals; though there is such
a thing as their escaping me after all 1t
is now twelve o'clock. l will be very busy
this afternoon, but would like to see you
this evening, say at haf-past seven. Where
will you be at that timer"
'If you have anything Of Importance to
communicate" answered. "that is to say,
something of greater weight than all this
stuff about earthquakes and freckle exterm
inators, you can see me at the Manhattan
club at the time you name"
very well,' said he II won't call un-
less | have some news that will please
YOU
With this we separated, Wolcot and /
going off together and discussing, as we
went, the mysterious words and ways of
our singular associate. l was firmly of
the opinion that he>was utterly incompe-
tent for the business which he had under
taken but my friend, feeling 1t necessary
to vindicatc himself in some measure, for
having induced me to employ him, insisted
that he might he on the right track after
all.
The herald., 1896-05-31

MISS AGNES SUDDENLY CAME IN, Al
was cut down and narrowed considerably,
and that could work to much better ad-
vantage and accomplish more in a certain
length Of time.
THE first question was: how could the
safe have been robbed without connivance
of Mr.. Mckeever, he having set the time
lock on that Wednesday afternoon? There
was nothing gained in supposing that he
wound the time lock short Of the proper
time while he was temporarily deranged.
That would have been simply a palliating
circumstance, but would not have dis
proved his agency in the robbery. My con-
clusion was, necessarily, that some per-
son or persons caused him to wind the time
lock as he did. If he had wound the time
lock improperly, in a fit Of abstraction or
while out of his head, how could another
party have known it and taken advantage
Of it? 1t was settled in my mind then, that
he had been Influenced by another person
or persons and that he had acted as he
did while under this influence.
THE next question was: in what way
could an outsider cause the cashier to so
wind the time lock that it would run down
on Thursday? l thought this matter over
IL lOUB liInt. 1ueTc were d uuUlDeE UI ny
potheses which presented themselves and
which, one after the other, put away as
impossible. After I had got rid of every
thing that was utterly impossible there
was one supposition left, and, as is my in
variable custom, accepted this as the true
one. BY inducing Mr.. McKeever to. think
that the Wednesday upon which he last
closed the safe was not Wednesday but
Tuesday, you would cause him to wind the
tirae lock to run eighteen hours instead of
forty-two. and the door of the safe might
be opened at ten o'clock Thanksgiving
morning, You will recollect that gave
you my opinion that the bank had been
robbed at about that time.
Il started out. then, with the idea that
upon that Wednesday afternoon, McKeever
supposed that it was Tuesday. Therefore,
when heard this morning In the bank that
he had talked about an earthquake hap
pening the day before; that he had men,
toned Distillers' stock as at 27ss and had
spoken of John Y. McKane as being at lib
erty, my mind was in just the proper re-
ceptive and assimilating state; and these
utterances, which to you seemed those of
disordered intellect. opened up an i'm
mense vista to my imagination. 1t was at
that moment, If you remember, l told you
that had no doubt of being able to prove
Mr.. McKeever's innocence.
I'VE will now come to our perquisition
at the cashiers house. 1t appeared to me
to be altogether reasonable that. II such a
fraud were practised upon him it must have
been done at his house and, furthermore,
that 1t must have been done on Wednesday
noon, when he was last there. Any other
idea, on the contrary, was unreasonable
and improbable. Therefore, the conspir-
ators must have had an accomplice, an ally
in the bankers own home. / make it a
point to enter upon these Investigations
without any bias whatever; to approach
them, as far as possible with q perfectly
judicial mind. And so, when got to the
house and we saw those two women I i'm
The herald., 1896-05-31

Nd SNATCHED THE PAPER AWAY.
old papers. The piece CT newspaper which
bad got of Maria had the date of Novem-
ber % printed upon it in several places.
From several items Of news which were still
legible on the fragment, l knew that this
newspaper had not been printed on No
vember 28, 1894. / looked over the files
until came to the issue of November 2s,
1898, and found the newspaper from which
this scrap had been torn. In that paper l
read the account of the earthquake which
happened November 81 1893. From the
stock reports l saw that at the first board
that morning, November %, 1898, Distil-
lers' had sold at 275s l also read an ac-
count of John Y. McKane having presided
over the Sunday school Of the Methodist
church at Gravesend on the Sunday pre-
ceding. The most important, however,
was the fact that November %, 1898, was
on Tuesday, whereas November 2S, 1894,
came on Wednesday, l Immediately re-
turned to McKeevers house, having stop
ped en- the way at Macys to buy Maria
purple and green silk handkerchief with
which, by the way, she was SO pleased that
she grinned from one ear to the other.
asked her who brought the paper In that
day from the steps. She answered that
she had not done so and there was no one
else who could have done SO but Miss Ag-
mes. When you and Mr.. Wolcot and 1
were in Mckeevers library this morning, 1
noticed that there was a small calendar
standing upon the mantel. 1t was one of
those perpetual calendars which you change
from day to day, and this calendar bore the
date Tuesday, November rs. You prob
ably didn't see it, but l, having an eye to
all these small matters took it in at once
After asking Maria who brought in the
paper, / asked her why she hadn't fixed the
calendar as it should be-. She answered
that she knew nothing about it and never
touched it. l then asked her to show me
the files of old papers in the attic. She
did so, and On examining them, I found
they had been Systematically arranged and
kept for years. AS near as could see, tho
issues for 1898 were all there, with the ex.
ception of that CT November 2S, which had
been taken from its place. The whole casa
was now as plain as the nose on your face.
The old cashier had been given paper to
read which, while it bore the proper month
and day of the month, November rs, gave
the day of the week as Tuesday instead Of
Wednesday. By this, as we'll as by the
other device, no less ingenious. of the dew
illed lobster and the calendar, he had been
led to think that it was Tuesday and not
Wednesday and had, when he closed the
/ safe, wound the time lock to run eighteen
! instead of forty-two hours.
: "It is the commonest thing in the world
for anyone to mistake the day of the week.
We are all doing it frequently. 1t is also
common thing for one to pick up an old
newspaper and read it for ten or fifteen
minutes before discovering ones mistake.
Think how many times you have done the
same thing yourself. And how have you
finally discovered your error? The items
probably seemed strange to you, but you
didn't find out that yot were reading stale
news until your eye caught the date of the
paper. In this case you must recollect
The herald., 1896-05-31
COULD GUARANTEE CIRCULA-
TION.
But He Was Proud of His Bald Head

But He Was Proud of His Bald Head
and Didn't Propose to Fool 1t.
Garden me, sir, but could l occupy
just about minute of your time? 1
would like to show you something that
know yon will be glad to see"
Without waiting for permission the
young man with e sallow complexion and
la hand satchel thrust bottle under the
nose of the bald-headed man.
Nov. sir" he continued "you are a
public official and the public sees O great
deal OF you and the public realizes that
you are quite bald, sir. have something
here that | will guarantee to restore your
hair it you will just permit me to treat
you. 1t shnI't cost you q cent for medi-
cine or treatment. and all I ask is that
YOU will commend my medicine to your
friends il | succeed When they see Il
luXuriant growth of hair on your head
and ask what you used you can tell them
McCrackcn's Peerless RoraX Iair Re
storer and Scalp Renovator."
"Then you want to use my bald head
for advertising purposes. Is that it,"
queried the Official.
"Well, yes; that's right"
docs it appear to offer advantages
las an advertising medum?''
"Wcn, yes
"Then whaG will you pay g square inch
to paint your advertisement on my head
in letters Of any size, design or color?
OF, L. you prefe., you can use it for post
ers or stickcrs. What do you pay for
good advertistlsing space?'
II hardly think"
'And say | have half Il dozen bald
headed friends, | think | could buy up
| their space for you if you will give me Il
commission"
But / want to make the hair
81 am sure you will get better returns
| than fence advertising, hand bills or
newspaper III guarantee YOU Il cir
culation among 1000 friends, $500 more
acGuaintancea, 5000 people who knew
me by sight, and 10000 strangers every
day"
"Well l see / can't do
| Il wish you'd think that over and make
me an Offer. I'm proud of this head, -
but the young man had gone.
The herald., 1896-05-31
Los ANGELES HERALD SUNDAY MORNING. MAY

mediately proceeded upon the basis that
this Miss Agnes Warren was the accom-
plice In question. l noticed, as we'll as you,
her sad and modest demeanor and the
dark rings under those handsome, black
eyes of hers; but have seen such things
before, and how, let me ask you, could this
deceit as to the day Of the week have been
practised upon McKeever without the con-
currence and help of his neice. who was
with him that noon at lunch as we'll as be-
fore and after?
II was borne out in my theory by the very
straightforwardness and smoothness Of her
story, and the readiness with which she
answered me when l suddenly broke in
upon her narrative with inconvenient and
impertinent inquiries. Her manner, prob
ably, to you, looked like innocence. To me
she seemed too glib and altogether zoo well
prepared for my questions l noticed, also,
that she showed an anxiety that We should
not talk with the servant, and, for this
very reason, devised the expedient of the
msaid spectacles, in order that l might
interview Miss Flanagan while her mis-
tress was absent.
1--WE are now coming to a clue of greater
value than anything l have mentioned
Namely to the devilled lobster and the
freckle exterminator the Importance CT
which you and your friend were so disposed
to ridicule.
"You will recollect that Maria Flanagan
thought that it was Tuesday and not We'd
nesday when McKeevcr was last at his
house. Why did she think SO? Because
they had devilled lobster for lunch that day,
and they never had it except On Tuesdays
Miss Flanagan was led into the same error
as her master, and Miss Warren, who or
dered the dish prepared, was the cause OF
it.
''Mr. McKeever was reading q newspaper
that day, when he was interrupted by
stranger calling upon him. 1t was the
Evening Post and it came regularly to the
house at half-past two. After her employ
er's departure the servant picked up this
paper and was looking at it, when Miss Az
nes suddenly came in, snatched the paper
away, crumpled it up and threw 1t in the
CRATE. When her mistress back was turn
ed, Maria saved a portion of the paper from
the fiames the fragment which she showed
me this morning. On looking it over, l
saw the advertisement of Fcrdham's phe-
nominal freckle exterminator; but, at the
same time, saw something else, which al
most made me shout with exultation. 1t
was part of an account of an earthquake
which had happened the day before the
paper was published. l say part Of an ac-
count, because the most of it was torn away
and had been burned.
81 then knew about where I stood. The
rest was matter merely of detail and ex-
ertion left you, if you remember, short
" after this I went at once to the office
of the Post and looked over their files Of
The herald., 1896-05-31

persuaded the cashier to take a glass OF
came insensble and, on recovering con-
sciousness found himself some two or three
hundred miles on the way to the island Of
Cuba.
l must now conclude my story in a very
few words, for find that it has spun out
to a length twice what / imagined neces-
sary when commenced it.
The two prisoners, George Carton and ST.
mon Cartier, were never convicted. The
evidence against them was so fantastic
that our lawyer advised us not to push
the matter, but to get what we could out Of
them in the way of a compromise. We Sc
cured twenty-five thousand dollars from
them and let them go, and we did it in a
way. too, that did not make us liable for
compounding a felony.
l never knew what became of the girl,
Agnes Warren, beyond the fact that she
never went back to live with her uncle.
1t is to be hoped that she saw the folly Of
her deeds and made all atonement possible
by repentance.
In conclusion, I have two points to
make. First, if those two rascals who de-
veloped such an extraordinary and Won
derful ingenuity in their plan to rob the
bank, had employed the same invention
and genius in legitimate direction they
would in time have become the rulers OF
the earth. Lastly, l have to say that,
| though some of the incidents in this nara
| tive may seem improbable and unreason-
able there is not one of them which is not
strictly possible. And it is also true, ant
not to be gainsaid, that truth is Otter
| stranger than the strangest fiction.
(The End.)
The herald., 1896-05-31

it for them by going through the old gen.
tleman's pockets"
So ED I'd Ben. amin's story. In the course
of few days, Mr.. McKeever returned and
though none the worse in health for his
experience he had wonderful tale to tell.
Cartier, it seems, with the pretence of ne
gotiating a loan Of ten thousand dollars
from the bank, on a consignment of ag-
ricultural implements for Havana, induced
him to go down to the wharves of the
New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Co.
at Pier II East River. He got him to go
on board the steamship Yucatan, which
was lying at the dock, about ready to steam
out and to enter what purported to be Car
tiers cabin; a cabin which he must have
secured beforehand. While there he had
The herald., 1896-05-31

that the date, as far as the month and the
day Of the month were concerned, was cor
rect. You must also recollect that Mr..
McKeever. on this occasion. only read the
paper for a few minutes before he was in
terrupted by the arrival of the stranger
And also the fact that the items were a
year old, that they had passed out Of his
memory and seemed new to him.
"The rest of the affair was a very simple
thing and might have been done with ease
by even my official colleagues. OF course
I knew that Agnes Warren would not have
done this thing on her own account. She
would only have done it for lover. i'm
mediately adopted very fattering tone
with the fair but freckled Miss Flanagan.
joked with her about her admirers and
The herald., 1896-05-31
LIKES TO KILL CHICKENS

\. ID. Elting tells a curious story about
n pigeon that has the instincts of the
butcher bird. One of his friends living
in lronton, o.. owns a large male pigeon
which takes delight in killing chickens.
The friend found chickens two or three
weeks old dead on the ground with
their necks broken, but couldn't account
for it. till one day he saw the pigeon
aight near Il chicken and, pouncing on
il. break its neck. The pigeon flew away
without eating its victim. Why this was
done, if it was not for fun, is not known.
The herald., 1896-05-31
HOW rsK1MOS TRAP MOTIVES

Field and Stream tells of curious way
by which Eskimos catch wolves. They
plant Il stake in the ice, with sharD
piece of flint on the end. which is wrap
ped with seal or other bubber. Alon.
come the wolves ard 80 to licking tho
frozen bluDbcr. After while they get
down to the flint and cut their tongues
on it. Being ravenonsly hungry. when
they taste the warm blood they fail to
and chew the life out of one another.
The familiar trick of putting a bent piece
of sharpened whalebone into a ball OF
blubher, which is released by the heat
of the animals stomach ana results In
the death of the animal, is much less eff.
fective than the flint stake, because near.
ly whole packs of wolves are killed by
the latter device.
The herald., 1896-05-31
KNIVES OF THE SIXTEENTH
CENTURY

In monastery in Ireland there Is
very curious collection of knives of the
sixteenth century, the blades Of which
have on one side the musical notes to the
benediction of the table, or grace before
meat, and on the other side the grace az.
ter meat. The set Of these knives usual,
ly consisted of four. They We're kept in
an upright case of stamped leather and
were placed before the singer