River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1901-04-11

to the office, as before.
Of course / was in sufficiently good
health, by evening, to pursue my in
designations. ! placed a revolver in
my pocket, loaded with "dum-dum'
bullets, as I had heard that ghosts
were hard 10 annihilate. When all
my preparations We're completed |
made my way to the vicinity of the
/ store.
All. I was right.
As I approached the store dis
ccrned bright lig.t shining from the
windows of the Office. The phantom
was evidently unable to do good work
in the darkness. II was ten o'clock,
or perhaps a little before that hour.
crept around to the SIDE door.
Using all of the caution at ms com
mand, I inserted the CREASED key, and
unlocked the door. The bolt slipped
back noiselessly and allowed me to
enter without attracting any attcn-
ton.
The office was at the rear of the
store, so 7 tip-toed slowly and care
fully to the glass partition; then,
standing upon a low box, | stretched
my neck and peered over As antici-
pated, all of my books were spread
open upon the desk, but there was
not person in sight. l dropped
back from my strained position and
as / did so I heard a noise which
sounded very like pen scratching
over the paper. Now | would catch
him. The phantom was making an
entry / raised myself and looked
again. No one was at the desk, al
though the scratching noise con-
tinued. | could not see the floor
After thinking a moment. l deter
mined to enter the office. As ! care
fully swung the door open l saw
that which, in my overweight state,
almost transfxed me.
! saw the figure of a man, upon his
knees, before the cash safe His back
was toward me, but / could see that
the outer doors were open, and that
he had mastered the inner combina-
ton. 1t was the clicking of the discs.
as they reyolyed, which l had heard;
the noise which had seemed to me like
so many pen scratches.
The safe was in the corner of the
Office, furthest from the door. close
to the managers desk. 1t stood in
such a manner that anyone opening
it must do so with his back turned
toward the door of the office
If this was my ghostly assistant,
he was evidently bent upon collecting
his salary.
In times of sudden nerve-tension
thoughts fly rapidly. As l tried mem
tally to determine my best course
of action, saw the man reach into
the inner safe, seize good-sized
bundle of bills and stow them away
in his capacious pocket. If l raised
the alarm the robber stood a good
chance of getting away. If tried to
ring for the police, he would certainly
escape, and very likely shoot me, in
the bargain. If l used my revolver,
which | held in my hand, / ran the
risk of missing him, as | was none
uncertain. At the report he might
Of a spirit) evaporate into thin air.
Besides these objections, l had a natu-
raj antipathy to shooting a man when
he was down; and in the back, too.
No, | would not do it.
! finally made up my mind, much
quicker than it has taken to tell it..
| would try and overpower and cap
ture the man. His position was such
that / would have every advantage
! was quite an athlete, and felt no fear
in matching my strength with his
crept quietly toward him, and, when
near enough, made a leap which land
ed me square upon his broad back.
/ found him flesh and blood. indeed,
and very energetic flesh and blood at
that.
We struggled desperately for time,
which seemed, indeed, an age. At
some moments it would seem to be
impossible for me to continue my as
cendancy. The man acted like a cor
nered animal He writhed and twist
ed, trying his best to turn over, so
that he might embrace me with, what
felt would be death grip, should it
ever happen. His frantic efforts to
free himself, or overpower me, seemed
to continue for hours, but was prob
ably for only few seconds, when l
felt a weakening in his straining
muscles, a giving way in his rigid
/ form, and with a last herculean eff
fort 1 forced him TO the floor, with
my knees pressed close upon each side
Of his back. while my hands tightly
/ compressed his throat from behind,
holding his face pressed against the
floor. feared to move lest he should
recover his feet and overpower me.
While had him in this position l felt
sure that | could hold him.
What was l To do? | could not hold
myself at this tension all night. I
called once or twice at the top of my
voice: Police, Policel" but the tones
seemed to be those os an infant as
they reverberated through the great
store. If l could only leave him for an
Instant l would ring the district tele-
graph call for the police. | tried.
# an ,, ~