The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-08-15


SAFE says Danny. We know what's
there and we're going to have it
MY friend replied Col. Tracy, I
won't.
"'Then you'll have to hold my hat
again. said Danny, and be tied up neck
and heels while we blow the safe
1.-The colonel looked at the hat and
then he looked at my pal. Danny was
grinning, which he never did unless he
was really ugly, and when Danny was
ugly it was positively sinful to fool with
him. Col. Tracy seemed to grasp this
fact in natural history by the right end,
and so he said:
Ion second thought. will give you
the combination If l can find it. l can
not remember what it is, but | have 1t
on slip of paper somewhere in my
desk
1.-The way in which he said this con-
WINGED us both. 1t is no uncommon
thing for a man in his position to for
get the combination of the safe, and to
depend upon memorandum. We let
him set down to the desk and hunt for
the slip of paper.
Now the queer part of the case Is
just here. The colonel knew the COM
bination perfectly well, and he also
knew that he'd have to give it up even
tually. He was only playing for delay.
AS a matter of fact-of course, entirely
unknown to US he had an appoint
ment with half a dozen men who We're
to come to his office at midnight and
transact n matter of business. One of
them. as j afterwards learned, was
coming in on a late train, and going
out on an early one; and that, ac-
counted for the unusual hour. The
colonel knew that the men would sure
ly come. and that they would be right
on time. If he could hold us SO hong,
we were trapped.
so he began to hunt through his
desk very carefully--and slowly for
the scrap on which the combination
was written. Every now and then his
face would brighten up. and he'd seize
upon a bit of paper. Then he'd say:
Dear me- dear me; / was sure this was
it. But it isn't. Now where can it
be?' And he'd adjust his glasses on the
bridge OF his nose. and beam upon us
benevoently before proceeding with
the search. ! was completely taken in.
| made up my mind that the colonel
was IL queer old crank who had made
up his mind that his hundred thousand
was as good as gone, and was taking
it mighty easy, being satisfied to
save his skin. But Danny got m
patient by and by, and he began to help
the colonel hunt, ripping things out of
the desk and throwing them on the
floor. The colonel demonstrated with
him in the politest possible style, but
Danny never could stand politeness:
he hadn't been brought up to it. SO he
told the colonel to find that mcmoran-
dunn in one minute or we'd tie him
neck and heels, stuff a handkerchief
down his throat, and then blow up
the safe. The colonel asked to see the
handkerchief and Danny got out his
old red bandanna, whereupon Tracy
weakened, and produced the memOran-
dunn. Then we all went out into the
cashiers room where the safe was.
I'VE had lost three-quarters of an
hour that way, ana Danny wasted ten
more minutes in impressing upon the
colonels mind the fact that he would
get shot if he attempted to raise IL
rlmpus. Then Danny walked up TO
the safe with the memorandum in his
hand: but before trying it he gave
pull on the handle of the sale door,
and by the jumping Jupiter the thing
wasn't locked The language that
Danny threw off his mind when he
found that out would have bored a hole
i'm an ordinary oldfashioned safe. The
colonel read him quite Il lecture about
it; but Danny wasn't paying much at
tention to reform just then. He had
opened the safe and was studying the
inner doors which were the hardest and
the strongest that ever saw in Il safe
of that size.
"They opened by means of n key fit
ting into Il slot in the center of q round
knob like the combination knob on the
outside. There's no picking such n
lock as that. and the colonel said that
he hadn't a key, but he thought that
there was one in the cashiers desk,
He'd rather we'd use 1t, he said. than
break the safe. So we opened the
cashiers desk, and the colonel found
the key for us. Let me tell you the
trick that he played right here. As a
matter OF fact, he had key in his
pocket and, of course, we'd have gone
through him and got it, if he hadn't
been so free about .shadowing us where
the other was. Now this key in the
desk was cracked right across although
the break didn't show. and the colonel
knowing that the lock worked rather
hard, was in hopes that the key would
break in it. IF it did, we'd have to bore
through the door and that would take
time.
-Well it all happened just as he had