Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1903-06-03
CAPTURED
ELECTRICALLY
by Akah Milton ker

| muscles in fingers, arms and shoulders
and with nerve TO face anything. Sew.
eral years of labor with the pliers had
given him finger grip which caused
his chums to avoid shaking hand with
him. He could make an insulator tie
with No. 6 iron wire with apparent
ease. This remarkable power of con.
traction in the finger muscles once
saved him from probable death.
In 1898 local company in Layton
had installed telephone exchange.
Several of their wires parailelcd the
telegraph wires along the tracks and
also those of the lighting and power
company in the streets. The result was
a bad case of induction, that mysteri-
Gus transference of electrical impulse
between wires where there is no direct
connection.
So great was the influence of the tele-
graph and power wires on the wires
Of the telephone company that the rat
tie and clicking of our instruments
| could be distinctly heard in the tele-
phone receivers, and the singing snarl
of the dynamos at the power house an
noyed every one trying to use the
| phone.
The manager angrily declared that
some enemy of his company had
| thrown threadlike copper wires across
| from wire to wire thus tangling up the
currents.
Prindle went over" the wires care
| fully twice and reported that he could
find no cross" of that sort. Still he
kept studying and inspecting the mat
! ter, because the telephone managers
daughter was very good friend of
his.
Emerging from the managers house
one night near the hour of II. he no
ticed dark figure stealing down
side street. Touched with suspicion,
Prindle followed after the skulking
form, the malicious enemy" theory
suddenly alive in his mind.
Presently the figure crossed MOON
lit street and entered an alley leading
between two business blocks. Through
the alley ran the wires of both the tel
ephone and power companies, and
Prindle crept carefully forward
through the shadows at the base of
the buildings, keeping his eye on the
man ahead of him. Suddenly, and to
the lineman's establishment the man
began walking up one of the telephone
poles.
"Pon my SOUL" gasped Prindle, ''if
he hasn't got spurs strapped on his
shoes! / guess Manager Towne must
be right; some ones tampering with
the wires! I'll nail the rogue when he
comes down."
With tingling nerves he crept near
er; but, to his amazement, the climber
stopped before reaching the cross arm
and skillfully threw the iron hooked
end of rope ladder over the sill of an
open window in the side of the build
ing, some six feet away. The other
end of the ladder he strapped to the
pole, then carefully crept across the
bridge thus formed and disappeared
through the window.
Prindle fetched low whistle and
looked all around. "Wheww he half
whispered. This is interesting and no
mistakei That chap has gone into a
room above the bank, Must be he's
figuring on getting down into the vault
ROOM
He stood in silence looking up at the
window and listening. The slow, soft
rasping of some sort of instrument
came to his ears. Placing his hand on
his hip pocket to see if the little pistol
l. 1ofa % Ntrrht @
there. he slipped off his shoes and be-
gan climbing the pole. Slowly and
carefully he drew himself up until his
hand was on the strap of the ladder.
then he paused. The rasping noise had
ceased.
'If that fellow hears me. he will like
| ly come to the window and shoot me in
the face" was Prindle's thought. He
hung perfectly motionless for a time,
hearing nothing louder than the strong
beating of his heart. Then the rasping
sound began again.
Immediately the lineman drew him
self higher. Then, taking the pistol in
his hand, he crept warily across the
rope bridge and in at the window.
Letting himself down on the floor. he
stood STILL The rasping sound came,
from closet at the back end Of the
room.
HE is saving through the floor with
the expectation of working his way
through the patchwork covering the
top of the bank vault" was Prindle's
mental comment.
With pistol in hand he began step
ping craftily toward the closet, but a
board in the floor creaked and the muf-
fled noise of the saw suddenly ceased.
The lineman held his breath. A misty
kind of darkness filed the room, the
moons radiance being reflected dimly
from the opposite wall of the alley. An
Instant later he saw the door of the
c'oset pushed open and the outline of
q human form rising in the opening.
| To the burglar the dim and immoya-
Bile figure in the middle of the room
must have seemed frightful. Had