Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1900-06-28

chief of police. l was shown into his
room at once, but he was busy talk
ing over the robbery with Mr.. Pater-
son, and it was some time before he
asked me what I wanted. l told him
I wanted to see him alone on very i'm
portant business and he told me he
could not see me then, as there had
been big robbery in the city and he
was very busy.
That's just what 1 wanted to see
you about" said /.
"Do you know anything about it %
he asked, in surprise.
| Eyes, sir. l do, and if you will listen
to me 1 will tell you where you can
find the things that were stolen, and
also tell you how you can catch the
whole gang. ] have got it all planned
out
Both the chief and Mr.. Paterson
were interested at once, but l refused
to speak till Mr.. Paterson was out of
| the way, for l was afraid he would
be so anxious to get his things that
he would spoil the plan, and after he
left the room and l told my story to
the chief, he said 1 was right. He
told Mr.. Paterson that 1 had a very
important clew, and that he would
follow it up at once.
My plan was this: No one was to go
near the mill till after dark, when the
chief, with four picked men, would
go over the bridge in citizens clothes,
each one by himself, and come to my
house. Then l was to take them to
he mill on6 70 hi6a iii tho
men came for the goods. Then the
police were to overpower them. OF
course, I did not know whether there
would be two or three men there, but
I thought the four police would be
enough, even if all three came.
The scheme was carried out and
we all got to the mill without attract
ing any attention. The first thing to
do was to see if the bags were safe.
They were just as i had left them,
and then the men were placed in pc
sition to watch for the robbers. Of
course, the catching of them was
planned by the chief, but he asked me
what 1 thought of the plan before he
carried it out. and / made one or two
suggestions, which he adopted.
~Abodt Willie L was "abSH
ing at the upper window l saw three
men in boat coming up the river. l
Immediately ran to the cellar and
told the chief. He placed his men
at once, and l hid behind the barrels
to see the fun. | had a big flash Ian
tern, and / was to turn it on when
the men started to remove the rub
bish from where they had hidden the
bags. OF course, they did not expect
anything out of the way. and they all
three came in. The two men who
were called Jack and Jim came first,
and the one whom they referred to
as johnson came last, with lantern
AS the two men leaned over the pile
to clear away the rubbish / opened
the lantern and the police jumped
upon the men and secured them. while
the chief put his pistol into the face
of Johnson with the remark:
Throw up your hands. old man, if
you don't want this bullet
He dropped the lantern and put up
his hands in hurry, L can tell you.
In less time than it takes me to write |
it, they were all handcuffed and taken |
out into the boat. Just as we were |
about to row off with the men. we |
saw a light in the cellar and I, with |
two of the police rushed back just in |
time to put out fire that had started |
from the lantern that johnson had |
dropped, and that we had failed to |
notice as we took the men out.
We made sure there was no more |
fire and then rowed back to the city. |
The men were convicted. of course,
and / was given very handsome re-
ward for my part in the discovery.
None of the boys dared to say any |