Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-04-25
DAILY SHORT STORY
The Watchman's Story.
rcopyright, 1908. by c. B. Lewis.l


adventure happened. A burglar alarm
connected with doors and windows and
a special wire ran from the bank to the
police station. ! was required to send
in a signal over this wire every thirty
minutes. The code of signals ran thus:
One push on the button, "All is WE'LL"
two pushes, 81 am ILL.," three pushes,
Help is wanted at once"
One winters night between calls,
fell asleep and was awakened by a
hand clutching my throat. l started
up to find three men lowering over me
and realized that burglars had come at
last. The first thing one of them did
was to send in the "All is welP' call,
and was then tied fast to my chair.
and the trio began work on the doors
of the vault. 1t was done for in about
ten minutes.
Then they began work on the inner
doors. They used what is called Il
blacksmith's drill. All of them seemed
familiar with its working. and they
had brought along no less than six diff
ferent drills for the machine. Work
was begun just under the lock, the men
spelling GdCn OiICI at 1nlS1 VI ACAi
minutes. When the . o'clock signal
was sent in, they had made very
slight impression on the hard metal.
but at 2:3O the signs were more encour-
aging.
At O'Clock the trio were delighted
with the progress of the work. At $3.50
they ceased drilling, blew lot of pow
der into the hole and inserted fuse,
and pretty soon there was an explosion
which tore a great piece out of the
door, but did not burst it open.
They did not use the drill again on
the door, but on a closer examination
decided to blow it open. At 4:40 all
was ready. While the leader placed
the fuse the other two picked up my
chair to carry me into the presidents
room. All were to remain there until
the explosion was over. Just what
happened to bring about the premature
explosion could never be learned, but
the probabilities are that in his haste
the man cut the fuse too short He
was still kneeling at the door and the
three of us had our backs to it and
were about eight feet away when the
mine was sprung. The jar of the ex-
plosion was felt two blocks away.
cannot remember that l heard the
explosion. I simply remember being
lifted up and hurled forward. The
next thing 1 knew 1 was sitting up
with a hand over each ear, and the
room was in q midnight darkness. l
felt so stupid and dazed that it was
many minutes before 1 could place my
self. The gag was out of my mouth,
and the ropes with which l had been
bound to the chair were hanging loose
Iy on my arms and legs. When l be-
gan to feel around to see where ! was.
discovered that I was close to the
wire gate by which all employees en-
tered the bank Enclosure. The door OF
the vault was almost on line with
this gate. but sixty feet away. Be
tween the gate and the vault were the
compartments of bookkeeper, paying
teller, receiving teller and discount
clerk. each rallied off with wood or
wire.
You can judge of the strength of that
blast when 1 tell you that everything
in that sixty feet was leveled, the
small safe blown over and the counters
twisted like a rail fence. AS soon as
realized the situation l CROPPED for
match and lighted a gas jet. though
the room was so full of powder smoke
that it was some time before l could
see a foot from my nose. When the
smoke lifted so that / could get about,
[ lighted more gas and then looked for
the burglars.
One of them lay in heap against
the front door. a second under the
counter near where l had picked my
self up, and the third / could not find,
though / knew he must be under the
vault door, which had been blown off
and lay on the floor. The man at the
front door was stone dead. The doc
tors said that his body must have
swept down all the ratings and parti-
lions as he was hurled forward. The
man under the counter began to show
signs of life as l overhauled him, and,
thinking he might prove troublesome,
1 tied him hand and foot. You will
wonder that 1 was not severely hurt.
but that was the chance of accident.
The chair was completely wrecked, but
1 got off with three or four painful
bruises.
The man under the counter had his
nose broken, two ribs fractured and re-
ceived bad scalp wound, but he had
no sooner recovered consciousness than
he began to struggle and curse. When
told him that both his partners were
dead. he was awed to silence for awhile.
Then he began cursing again, and
stepped over to the police wire and sent
in the signal "Help wanted at once"
1t had never been sent in before, nor
have the words gone over that wire
since. In five minutes there were four
bluecoats knocking at the door, and
when / let them in my prisoner greeted
them with jeers and curses and swore
he would get even with me If it took
100 years.
The leader, as 1 told you. was kneel-
ing at the door when the explosion &C.
Cured. We found him under it. crush
ed and burned and bearing little SEM