The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-11-10
BEECHENBROOK BOY.


was the boy at Beeehenbrook, - as all
the newspapers headed the affair, and,
though I viii have to write more or less Of
myself, which one shouldn't DO when it
can be avoided. I hope may come out Of
it without being thought in the least CON
Ceited.
Beechenbrook was and is yet great
house q few miles outside of Manchester.
At the time Of my story it was occupied
by the man who built it, a large manufac-
turer Of the famous manufacturing town
1t stood in the middle Of 80 acres Of
ground, and house, barns, lawns and gar
dens required the services of about Is
servants.
In the bookstore in which was EN-
ployed in London 7 was said to have ex-
cellent taste and Judgment in the arrange
ment OF country libraries, even though I
was only boy Of IS, and a few weeks aft
er the owner of Beechenbrook had given
us an order I was sent up there to put
away the volumes.
On the day I arrived the owners wife
and daughter started for Scotland on a
visit while Mr. Markham himself depart
ed for Paris to attend a certain business
All the servants about the place except the
head gardener, two gFooms and two wom-
en- in tho kitchen were given leave from
their employer to go to the station, two
miles away. They were not long gone
when passing through the hall I saw three
masked men trying to open the plateroom
door. I crept back to the hall, across into
the drawing room, and at the far end OF
the big room raised the window and
stepped to the ground.
Once ont made my way to the stables
but there a surprise awaited me. I found
a horse hitched to q cart and the gardener
and head groom standing beside the We
hicle. Had the two men not had their
backs to me and been so earnestly engaged
in conversation they must have seen and
heard my approach.
had my lips parted to speak, when I
suspected something wrong The piunder
was to be carried of in the cart, and the
three men servants were in league with
the robbers. 1t came to me like a fash
and in time to save myself. drew back
and wondered what should do
Queerly enough, I was more upset at
the thought of the two mile run in the rain
and darkness to town than in returning
to the house and facing the robbers. I
was out of the house and could hide in
safety till morning, but that idea never
came to me.
was all for preventing the robbery, and
pretty soon skulked back to the open
window. In SO doing I saw the outside
door of the dining room ejar. The groom
had let the robbers in at that door, and
the distance from the door to the open
ditch was only 10 feet
When 1 had re-entered the house and
crept back to the door leading into the
dining room, the fellows had given up
trying to open the plateroom door with
key and were working at it with iron
bars Five minutes later they had it open,
and then the groom passed out piece after
piece, while the robbers deposited them in
their sacks.
save space nearly every piece was bent or
broken By hand or foot. The trio worked
in hurry, and at the end Of half an hour
the room was empty and five sacks were
full
I had been watching everything IN a
helpless way, having no plan and no hope
and it was only when the men shouldered
the sacks to carry them out that made
move.
determined to try the effect of a scare,
and as the last of them stepped outdoors
I fred the pistol into the sack on his back
and shouted at the top Of my voice. 1t
was the groom who had slipped up stairs
and locked me ia, and though he may not
have recognized my voice as shouted, the
sudden alarm caused a greater panic than
1 could have hoped for.
All three men started to run. The
groom threw down bis sack, but the rob
bers chung to theirs They all knew about
the ditch, but IN the darkness and confu-
sion they made II ght for it and mbled in
one after another AS they went in I fred
two shots ia the direction of the stables.
Both cut the two men there SO close that
they took to their heels, and thus with
three shots and four or five yells had
scared OF the whole gang. I had even
done better. In falling into the ditch the
three fellows were badly knocked about,
and when it came to climbing out they
couldn't do it, especially as I was there
with my pistol IN hand and threatened to
shoot the first man who showed his head.
The row had awakened the women, and
when they came to know what had hap
went for the police, while continued to
stand guard In an hour we had the
men out and handcufTed and next day the
other two were arrested 20 miles away.
The two strangers were professionals and
desperate men, and but for the fact that
one had an arm broken and the other a
leg by the fall into the ditch they could
not have been held there 80 easily.
They got years apiece in prison, while
the others were let of with seven, and,
though I am not going to give exact fig
ures, I viii say that Mr.. Markham reward
ed me so literally that it was made red
letter night in my life. The police growl-
ed at my way of doing things, as a matter
of course, bat on the other hand hun
bred different newspapers said the boy at
BeechenbrOok' deserved unstinted praise
for his conduct, and so, on the whole,
have always felt rather proud Of the affair.
Philadelphia Press
Foreign Bodies In the Flesh.