The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-06-14
A RETIRED BURGLAR.
HE TELLS OF A CURIOUS INCIDENT
IN HIS CAREER.

IN HIS CAREER.
A Nights Work That involved a Dis
agreeable Surprise. Cool Headed
Man and Safe That Had to he
Opened Before Morning.
''In the course of my time" said the re-
tired burglar, II have opened consider
able number Of iron boxes of one sort and
another, but never one under more Pc
culiar circumstances than this one, in
house in q small town in this state. This
safe stood in the dining room against the
wall on one side. My light fell on it when
I opened the door Of the room to look In.
1t was big, old fashioned safe, more like
ly here to contain documents and mort
cages and one thing and another like that
than money. But safe is always pleas
ant thing to look at 1t makes you think
of money anyway. And so I was glad to
see this safe, and, of course, hoped I'd
find a lot of stuff in it too. Then start
ed to swing my lamp around to take
glance at the rest Of the room before walk
ing in, but I hadn t Inore'n begun to move
it before brought into the light a pair of
shoes with the heels on the floor and the
soles up at an angle of about As degrees,
toes toward the safe. There were feet in
those shoes, of course, and the legs went
up from the other side at an angle Of 45
degrees to what didn't need to look to
see was a man sitting there in chair in
front of the safe asleep.
"Well, now, you know, that was unex-
pected, and while man in my business
must expect unexpected things and be
ready for 'em and not be surprised or star
tied this was really so very unusual that
I will admit was just little bit startled
by 1t, and my hand must have shaken
little, and while under most circum-
stances that wouldn't have made the
slightest difference iJ the world here it
made all the difference, for the hand that
shook was the one holding the lamp,
which was at that moment close to the
jamb Of the door. I knocked the lamp
against it-just little bit of tick, but
enough to wake up the sleeper. I could
see his feet draw up toward the chair.
"Then wanted to get out myself, and
started along the hall was in toward
thecellar door I'd come in at, but hadn't
taken two steps before heard a man say:
Hold on there-wait! Come back!
"And went back. 1t was command,
but it was an invitation, too, and was
ready to meet it or to chance it, and I
went back to the dining room and looked
in and saw man lighting the gas; he'd
been having for light before kerosene
lamp that saw now standing on the ia
turned and says to me:
"'Come in
"He wasn't quite so tall as I was, but
he was pretty solid sort Of citizen, who
could have held his own with me in
square rough and tumble easy, and hewas
a man who was accustomed to bossing
things and having folks do what he said.
couldn't tell for the life Of me what he
was, what his business was, but guess
he was just simply the richest man in the
town and spent his time looking after his
property. And when I'd come In he says:
"What's your business, my friend|
"And said I was travelling black
smith.
"'H'mp he says. You do most Of your
work nights?'
"And + said yes, did do more or less
night work.
"'And imagine you've got handy
kit of tools right in that bag there now,
he says, pointing to my bag, that had set
down alongside Of the chair was sitting
in.
sAnd I said yes, I had tools there for
any ordinary work.
"'You see that safe?' the man says,
pointing toward the safe he'd been sitting
in front Of when I first looked in, and
looked at it and saw the big, old fashioned
safe, looking very imposing and strong,
but safe that man that knew how could
cut into about as easy as he could cheese,
and said yes, did.
"'Wen, says the man, Il want to get
into that safe. There's some papers in
there that I've got to have in court tomor-
row morning, or this morning rather, at
So-and-so at 10 o'clock. And I've broken
the key, and I've been trying here for half
the night to break the safe open. Do you
suppose you could open it?'
"Well, I bad to kind Of cough to conceal
my emotion, because could have opened
the old box, you know, in ten minutes,
but said yes, could open 1t, I thought.
well, now,' says the man, you pitch
in and open it, and he sat down in chair
there near the safe and got ready to see me
work. And put my bag up on the table
and got out my tools and went at it, with
the owner looking on and greatly interest
ed. "In about three-quarters OF an hour !
had tie door Of the safe off and laid on its
back on the floor.
You certainly are handy man with
tools, ehP' says the man, and then he asked
me to look through the safe and see that
there was no money In it, which was
quite right. There wasn't any. You'd
have got nothing says the man. But
you've saved me lot of bother and trou-
BILE, he says, getting those papers fer me
in time, and want to pay you for it.
How much do you think ought to give
your g.
"And said I'd leave that to him.
"'How much do you make a day9' he
says.
"And I told him my earnings varied;
that sometimes made nothing and some
times made good deal, but thought
didn't average more than $50 day. He
seemed to have his own ideas about that,
too, but he handed me over a $40 note and
said the work was worth it to him.
"And then he escorted me to the door.
And he didn't ask me not to come back
nor threaten nor warn nor anything. he
knew that my knowledge Of his habita
about money insured him from any fur
ther visits from me, as far as that was
concerned, and he wasted no words over
it. He just let me out the door and didn't
even say good night.
Curious things happen in my businesss
Yes, they do, sure; no doubt about it. A
man may 90 for days and weeks and moth
ing whatever happen; everybody sound
asleep and yuu lust walk in and walk out,