Rosebud County news. [volume] (Forsyth, Mont.) 1901-1906, 1903-10-29
The K. a1lo L.
EXP RESS
ROB B cry
By w. BERT FOSTER
Copyright. 1908, BY 7. C. Mcclure

OuC VI tHc uOSI peculiar GASES lHdL
EVER came under my notice, said Cap
balm Sphinx, was the X. and L. express
robbery, which occurred when l was
q member of the old steamboat squad
My work consisted mostly in investi-
eating river piracies and keeping a
sharp eye upon that small but exceed
tngly active fraternity of smugglers
who operate in New York harbor.
The X. and L. Express company had
an Office on Long wharf, at the foot of
Jones street. and, doing a foreign busi-
ness only, as they did. their storage
rooms were on the wharf too.
The storage shed was a two story
building of brick. The office, which
adjoined it. was at the extreme end Of
the wharf 1t was built of wood and
corrugated iron.
Craft were passing the end of the
wharf all night long There was fer
~ slip near by. Every vessel at the
dock had it's keeper. and the property
Of the company itself was watched by
an old and trusted Waterman. Be
sides. the gates of the wharf were
locked at I O'Clock in the evening. and
If lighter had left the place it would
have been spicd by one of the police
patrol boats which ply up and down
the river all night long.
Yet that shanty was broken into. and
out of it was removed safe weighing
a couple of tons and containing money
nl-nt ~ 70
that made the entire downtown police
department wake up with decided
shock
The X. and l.. people We're wild, and
well they might be. The chief took
hold of the matter himself, and l was
one of the men selected to go down to
the scene Of the robbery with him.
And l tell you frankly l was sorry to
be put on the job. for as soon as l
heard the circumstances surrounding
this break it looked to me like blank
wall that would be mighty hard either
to climb over or dig through.
The first report we got was that the
two story Office had been blown half to
pieces by the force of the charge of
dynamite which the robbers had used
to try to force the safe. And yet no.
body along the water front had heard
the explosion.
That was bad enough for a begin
ming. And when we got to the wharf
we learned that. despite the wreck Of
the building, the burglars had evident
ly been unable to force the safe and
had finally carried it away with them.
~ Of I,o ctr 1,f, tcr
away, and as soon as the chief learned
that the safe in question had stood
right there where the floor was gaping
and the walls blown out he declared it
to be his belief that the force of the
charge used to open the safe had
blown the iron box clean through the
wall and that it was at the bottom Of
the river He was SO sure of this that
he sent over to the Navigation COM
pany's Offices for diver to 90 down
and poke about in the mud near the
dock
1t was between and o'clock in the
morning when we had first been in
formed of the mystery, so the job was
not many hours old. The company's
Waterman was already in custody and
was scared blue. 1t seemed that he
had been sitting up daytimes with his
sick child for the better part of a week.
and he had Just keeled over on this
night and slept like log in the stOr-
age building-WaS sleeping. in fact.
when the l0n@shoremen came to work.
He sWore the robbery could not have
been committed before midnight He
h.1 is r.
err that hour.
Then | made the discovery by talk
ing to the first clerk who had arrived
on the scene that the door of the office
building had been locked the same as
usual. nor had there been a window
unfastened Therefore. added to the
rest of the mystery. was the question,
HOW had the robbers entered the office
and mounted to the second floor. where
the safe was kept? But the chief was
so confident that the safe really had
not been stolen. only blown through
the wall and mad fallen into the water,
that he would do nothing until he had
heard the report of the diver.
But looked over the wreck again.
The force which had carried the safe
away must have been irresistible.
Chairs were smashed: one desk was
mass of wreckage picked up in a
corner piece of what supposed to be
part of picture frame. for one side
Of the stick was heavily gilded.
"Where's the rest of the picture?" l
asked the head clerk. and | showed
him the bit of gilded wood.