Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-08-03
THE BURGLARS ACCOMPLICE.

/ y
until tomorrow.
"I stammered out reply, but he
continued, sit down. pointing to a
leather-covered arm chair.
"I obeyed chemically. Never
had met with such cool, collected
sort of chap, and never had L been
SO neatly caught 1 stared at him in
amazement as he quietly seated him
self opposite to me, placing the re-
volver on the table, well out of my
reach, and then, fixing his eyes firm
ly upon me began:
"'Now, look here, my man. OF
course, you know perfectly we'll that
if I choose 1 could call the police in
stantly, and give you in charge for at
tempting TO rob my house-in fact,
have telephone here that communi-
Gates directly with the chief office at
Pilborough; but instead of that L am
going to make use of you. To be
frank, am in bit of mess with the
accounts through some unfortunate
betting transactions, and am also very
heavily in debt. Now listen. I want
some money immediately--say TWEEN
ty-tive thousand dollars or so. / must
have it, and the only chance I have of
obtaining it is from out of the large
safe in the bank, the key of which is
in the possession OF the head manager
at Dalthrope. In month l could re-
turn it, and all would be right. So,
in plain English, can't open the safe
you can; therefore, if you go with
me to the bank and do all tell you,
well and good. I'll bet you go scot
!; free, and give you one hundred dol
lars for your trouble. If not, tele-
phone instantly for an officer, and
give you up.
"The manager sat back in his chair
and toyed complacently with his re-
volver.
II was completely dumbfounded
with the turn of affairs. Still, the
offer was fair one; but I resolved an
bold stroke
"'l'll do it, bossl' I exclaimed
But i've hundred--not cont less.
And 1 amt afraid of you sending for
the police, because if you do I can tell
EN- what you propose, and how then?
l nodded triumphantly.
ellis face darkened angrily for a
moment, but he replied quite coolly:
"'And you imagine the officials
would take the word of common
burglar-a thief-in preference to
mine? No, no, my friend; you're
wrong there. But we'll say five hun
dred; but, now, mind you mention
this to no one.
Certainly not 1 returned.
" 'All's fair; but how's it to be done?'"
"'All you've got to do is to obey
me, and ask no questions, he answered,
sharply, and left the room, locking
the door behind him.
'I gathered up my tools and that
COMPOUNDED lantern, and awaited my
captor uneasily.
"'Was it oil trap to catch me?' [
wondered. But no; he returned
directly, dressed in thick, long over
coat, and hat we'll pulled down, to
partly cover his features, with small
black leather bag in his hand.
Ready? he inquired, in a low
tone.
"'Quite, L replied, and we started
off.
'It was a wretched night. pitch
dark, with nasty, drizzling rain.
The roads were badly lighted, and
somewhat uneven, which made the
distance seem even longer than it
was. My companion seemed trife
nervous as we drew nearer our destina-
ton; but this disappeared entirely
when we reached the bank, a large
stone building. We passed the front,
and turned down side street to the
private entrance. After hurriedly
glancing up and down. he took
bunch of keys from his pocket and
hastily unlocking the door, motioned
me to enter. He followed quickly,
and, relocking it, led the way down a
long, narrow stone passage to large
door at the furthest end. He touched
a spring and Immediately the side
few back, revealing the great iron
safe.
There, you think you can do
it?' he asked. It's pretty strong,
you see.
"I'll do it, guv-nor, replied. 4
guess there's not many safes and such
like that can't manage, though it's
teaser. However, here goes,' and L
set to work with hammer and chisel,
and in little less than ten minutes
the door yielded, and L rose to my
feet, well satisfied SO far.
cit was certainly worth the risk.
My only trouble was that l hadn't
known of it before, so I could have
had all the profits. Still, even in our
profession, clear hundred isn't to be
come by every day, so, after all, I
hadn't done SO badly.
''The manager was by this time on
his knees before the safe, drawing ont
the large iron boxes, and placing
their contents in the bag. 1 watched
intently, as he opened drawer at the
back and drew forth handful of mag
nificent unset diamonds.
"'Did you ever see better than
those?' he inquired, as exclaimed at
their beauty. sThey belonp IN a