The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1896-09-11

anu lie WAS d clerk IN Une store Dy JD(
name of Thornton. He had not been
there over a month when the robbery
took place nor had Lacy spoken tC
him dozen times. He was a young
man of twenty, and SO strong was his
belief.in the prisoners innocene and
so vigorously did he combat the
theories of the detective that he was
! discharged. He however, secured {.
place with another firm in town and
continued to champion Lacy until the
| matter passed out of the public mind.
1t was year after the robbery and
seven or eight months after the sui
eide that Thornton got up one morn.
ing to tell his employer queer story.
| He slept in the corner of the store on
the first floor. He had gone to bed
| tired after a long days work and had
slept soundly until midnight, when
| he suddenly awoke. He had eXtin-
guished the ligLt, but yet there was
Il strange light in the room, and by
its aid he saw Lacy sitting on the bed
side. That he was terrible frightened
and upset may readily be believedand
yet he held his nerve and asked the
ghost, as he believed it to be, what
was wanted. Lacy did not reply, but
SSShOiSb W lOllO"s anu
ped on his trousers and shoes and fol-
low the wrath through the streets of
the town toward the harbor for dis
lance of seven or eight blocks. The
ghost seemed to float along at about
four PAGES ahead OF him, looking back
occasionally to see if he was following
and he was leading. Thornton directly
toward an old tumble-down fish house
In a 4.
young man and inquired why he was
abroad at that hour in the night and
in that dress. With that the spirit
disappeared and Thornton's explana-
tlons were laughed at, and he was es-
corted back to the store as somnam-
bulist. His employer could not call it
a dream, because there was the police
mans evidence, but he ridiculed the
whole affair and put another clerk to
sleep in the store. If Thornton Was
somnambulist he was not a safe man
to have charge of property at night.
The young man took room two
blocks away and it was a couple OF
weeks before anything happened
Then one night soon after midnight he
awoke with these words sounding III
his ears:
Harry, did not rob the safe, but
it was done by two men Just as I ex-
planned. They came here in
boat from NJ, and after getting
the plumber they hid it away. intend,
ing to come back later on. MY honor
is at stake and il you will go with Inc
| will show you where they hid the
plumber. They were the two men
found in the upset boat
When Thornton r0uSad nm oo1, ,po,
sitting beside him. rs on the previous
occasion, but almost Immediately rose
up and beckoned the young man to
follow him. Had Thornton been any
thing but a nervy young fellow the
mystery of the robbery would never
have been explained. He was upset
to some extent by the words and the
sight of the man whom he knew to
have been long dead, but not SO much
that he hesitated to follow after.
The wrath led him toward the old fish
house as before, but this time Thorn.
ton was fully dressed. He could see
Lacy as plainly as he could see the
buildings along the streets, al.
though there were no footballs but
his own. He passed several pedes
trians, but they saw him alone The
wrath took a straight course for the
fish house and entered it, and did not
reappear, while Thornton hung about
for while and then returned to his
bed. The tumble down building was
not such place as he cared to enter
at midnight.
Early the nent morning he went TO
the firm of Bass, Williams s. Girder
and told them of his two midnight ad-
ventures and suggested that the fish
house be searched. He was simply
laughed at, but he got a policeman
and visited the place, and under q lot
of old nets and refuse they found the
satchel which contained all the bonds
and every dollar of the stolen money.
The whilom friends of Lacy were
jubilant, but they had the detective
to deal with again. One of his
theories was that Lacy hid the satchel
there; the other was that Thornton
was his confederate and had given up
the plumber because afraid to touch
it. So reasonable did this theory ap-
pear that the young man was arrested
and might have gone to prison had
not a crook, named English Joen
got bagged and made a confession.
He had known of the plan to rob the
concern and was aware that Hastings
and Foard were to do the job. They
were the men who were lost by the
upsetting of the boat. 1t was believed
that they were to leave the harbor by
a fishing smack, and that they were
pulling about to find her when they
lost their lives. They had hidden the
satchel temporarily. but it was so well
hidden that it had been walked over
a hundred times. Articles taken from
the dead mems pockets were identified
and after patient investigation no one
could longer doubt that things hap
penened exactly as Lacy related.