The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-03-30

a mallet. It made a ecUme. and the
prisoner next door begins 10 sing Rock
of Ages to cover the row.
"'That song will be worth to
that bloke than every n of Jenny
Lind's, once I cast loose from here"
says Joe, as he winds up the guard in
about thirty yards of bed tick rope
he'd made. The man couldn't sing,
neither, more than q crow.
Joe gagged his party and laid him
on the bunk as stif and helpless as a
poker. Ali he could do when he got
over his daZ9 was to look at Joe with
his eyes and froth where the gag filed
his mouth. Joe takes the guards keys
and hat and locks him in.
when Joe gets to the cage where
you go out he raps with his key for the
outguard to open the outer doors. Joe
unlocked the inner door and let him.
self into the cage. The outside guard
is just swinging open his door, and Joe
is, turning to lock the inside door, like
the guard would do. The pinch has
come; it's too dim q light in the cage
to recognize him, but he will now have
to run the gauntlet of three gaalit
offices and half q dozen deputies loaf
ing about.
but l don't go back alive, says
Joe, already beginning to sniff the out
side air. He almost wished he'd taken
Wild Willie's gun.
Just as Butts had braced himself
for a surge through the Office the In
expected happens.
"'BangI'g goes a gun.
lit was up on the fourth tier back
in the Jail. Joe forgot to take the
guards pistol, and he'd twisted round
until he got hold of it and fred it as it
lay in his pocket.
There way a big scramble Of depu
ties in the Offices. The outside guard
tore his door wide open, and Butte
quick as a fash, does the same with
MS. And then every guard and
deputy runs through the two door into
the Jail, like rats in a trap. When, the
last ones in Butts locks the inside door
and walks through the deserted Offices
into the night. AS he turns away he
could hear his neighbor singing like
his hopes of getting out depends on it.
Butts walked ten yards from the
Jail and turned up a stairway. 1t was
about 8 o'clock and a light still burned
in a lawyers Office. There was an of
fee boy there, tired and half asleep.
lis Mr.. Mcfarland int asks Joe, as
he opens the door
mcfarland was not in. The boy
said he'd gone put to draw a will for a
dying man and would be back as soon
as ever he got through. joe knew ali
about it. He knew it was l who had
routed the lawyer away, and had the
Office Kept open for him to go to cover
in. I had the lawyer away on the
Goodland Hills, six miles away, where
we had Jim, the Gopher, faxed up in
bed for a dying man. The lawyer
drew the Gopher's will and he gave
away more than a kings fortune that
night, did the Gopher.
"Our play was to hold the lawyer as
long as we could. And what with the
Gopher's fainting away two or three
times and mighty near croeking, anG
what with his giving away millions and
all, we kept the lawyer until midnight
[ gave him $50 for it. too, and to this
day he don't know how he. came to be
drawing the G >pher's will that night
He thought it was on the square. BuE
about Butts.
"'Iu wait until MI. Mcfarland
comes, Gays Joe to the kid. I want to
see him PARTICULAR
the Office was on the second story,
and had a balcony which overhung the
street. Joe takes a chair and steps out
on the ba cony. Somebody might
come in and be didn't care to take risks
While he sat out there the, chase after
him runs up and down beneath hls
feet.
Fifteen minutes after Joe gets out
a telegraph cali rang in at the central
detective Office. 1t licked:
butts just een driving west on
Detroit street. in a buggy. Horse on
the run.
"'M'Hannon. Captain Fourth Pre-
cinct.'
THAT was enough. Every fly cop
vas chasing out Detroit street in a
moment, going miles from h game.
WHO worked the wIre7
"Fuchs, the Fence
.tRntta still sat on the balcony. The