Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-09-01


usiAAcated,this fact 10 th& ''a assSshates."
ana the rsad was arranged. commit
tee Of eight being appointed BY the
president to secure the goods contained
in the establishment which were most
desired by the lads.
There was nothing for the eight raid
ers to fear except for the, presence of
a strolling policeman. so three Of them
were selected to sand guard at the en-
trance Of the alley ana SEQ that Bene
came near and surprised the others at
thedr work. BY II o'clock that night
the arrangements were completed and
a few minutes after that hour the eight
met at the opening to the narrow way
and Ave proceeded to the window.
which gave way easily to their COM
bined efforts Two Of the number
were then hoisted over the sill and
commenced handing the goods o-t to
their companions
How it was 1 cannot tell. but from
some cause the keen eyes Of the three
Sentinels failed to detect the form Of n
policeman slowly approaching the alley
entrance In the shadow Of the build
ings, until he was almost on them.
Perhaps the officer was suspicious; per-
haps not. At any rate. when the wild
cry. Cheese 1t. de cop" rang out on
the night air he surmised that there
must be trouble In the alley. and has
tened to It, Ten seconds later five
mahly running boys rushed out just
ahead of him, the two inside the store
having been gotten out In safety. with
the assistance of their three cOmpan-
ions. Wildly the five scampered to-
ward the wharf and their shelter. and
swiftly the policeman followed them.
"Dinny," who had been In the store,
and who was the speediest runner.
was we'll in the lead, and the other fOu'
were punched together. As the boys
reached the water front avenue an
other officer heard his colleagues call
for assistance, and he, too, Joined in
the chase. Down by the wharf the
pursued and pursuers swept, until the
hole in the fence which gave entrance
to the wharf was reached. and there
the young thieves jumped through. the
officers close at hand as they arrived,
and narrowly missing the iast boys
clothing when a speculative grab was
made. The policemen were baked
until they could pull another picket
from the fence, that there might be
sufficient space for them to get through
after the scared party of ''assoshatcs."
Five lively wharf rats" however.
proved to be more than two officers
could handle, especially as three of
them had crawled to the top of the
retaining wall. So the blue-coats de
cided to take four of them to the
street, and. after calling the patrol
wagon, return for the fifth, who hap
pened to be "Dinny." An effort was
accordingly made to carry out this pro-
gram.
Now Dinny O'Donnell knew that
his fate would be determined in a short
time. and that If he was to escape he
had but a few minutes to get away.
He thought quickly and decided that
his only hope lay in escaping over
head; otherwise he would soon be In
the police station.
From his perch on the wall he de-
scried a piece of iron on the floor of the
shack. Evidently it was part Of
crowbar. and the edge was just what
he needed to punch at the planking
above. This he did until he found
portion rotten enough to give way to
his blows and, although he met with
little difficulty In this, it was by no
slight labor that he succeeded In
..springing" the board upward enough
to allow entrance for his wiry
body
The plank had no sooner slipped back
nto place than he heard the officers
inter the shack and shout for him to
>ome down, but "Dinny" felt secure,
and kept quiet. The policemen searched
carefully about the den with Il lam
,ern and gazed at every portion of the
-etaintng wall, but ii did not occur to
ihem that the culprit was above in the
Italians fruit shed, and after dis
,euraging quest in the haunt Of
he "assoshates," they went out in
The muddy reaches to search for
aim.
1t was while crouching behind an
smpty orange box in the fruit shed, as
he officers hunted through the shack,
hat ''Dinny" heard piping, childish
Toice exclaim: "Desus luz dood chil-
en-" This was repeated twice at in
tervals Of two minutes, and then there
was a pathetic sigh. as the voice re-
peated: 'Oh, where Is my good
mammaf'
hn N 1od hnh nd hn
I'm terror lest he be found and locked
up-wishng, as he thought he never
wished before, that he had been good,
and praying with what little knowl-
edge he had Of heavenly petitiOns-the
voice seemed supernatural. and in his
half-daZed condition he Immediately
came to the conclusion that one of the
angels which the good priest had in
variably spoken Of at the infrequent
opportunities "Dinny" gave had been
sent to remind him of his sins. PrOba-
bly, under any other conditions he weuld
not have attributed to the mysterious
voice anything of the spiritual, but In
his fear and lonesomeness and in the
darkness his mind was swept with
thoughts Of his misdeeds. and 1t was
brought forcibly home to him that
while he might keep out of the way OF
the police he could never hide himself
from his heavenly father. even in the
shack of the wharf rats. He dared in
a few minutes to lift his head and peer
into the darkness, hoping to catch
glimpse of the imaginary white-winged
form, but he attributed his failure to
distinguish 1t to the darkness, still be-
lieving that there was IN angel in the
room. He heard nothing more OF the
voice during the night beyond now and
then a pitiful little sob or pathetical-
ly tender whispering of the word
mamma" but 1t was not In "Dinny's'
power during that time to terror to log
lcally deduce that the sounds came
from a human being, and a small one