The daily morning Alaskan., 1903-08-29

STORY
lconrrIrht. laal. ny .. D. LewIa.l ]

I had been the night wOtchman ai
 Parkers bank for three years when my
 adventure happened A burglar alarm
 connected with doors and windows and
 n special wire ran from the bank to'the
 police station. l was required to send
 fin signal over this wire every thirty
 minutes. The code of signals ran thus
 One push on the button. "All Is we'll"
 two pushes, "I am lll;" three pushes,
 "Help ls wanted at once"
 Ono winters night. between calls' l
 fell asleep and was awakened by a
 hand clutchlng my throat. l started
 up to fnd 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 well' call,
 and I was then tied fast to my chair,
 and the trio began work on the doors of the vault. It was done for in about ten minutes.
 Then they began work on the Inner doors. They used what is called a blacksmlths drill All of them seemed familiar with lts 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 each other at intervals Of ten minutes. When the ? o'clock signal was sent in, they had made very slight impression on the hard metal. but at 2:30 the signs were more eneour- aging.
 At 8 o'clock the trio were delighted with the progress of the work. At 8;8O they ceased drilling, blew lot of pow der Into the holc and Inserted a fuse, and pretty soon there was an explosion which tore great piece out Of the door. but dld not burst it open.
 They did not use the drill again on the door. but on a closer examination decided to blow it open. Al i4O 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 thut in his haste the man cut the fuse too short He was stlll knccling 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
 I cannot remember that 1 heagd the exploslon. | simply remember being lifted up and hurled forward. Tho next thing l knew 1 was sitting up with a hand over each ear, and the room was In e midnight darkness. ] felt so stupid and dazed that it was many minutes before could place my self. The gag was out of my mouth' and the ropes with which l had been bound Co the chair were hanging loose ly on my arms and legs. When l be- gan to feel around Co see where was 1 dlscovercS that l was close to the wire gate by which all employees en. tered the bank inclosure. The door or the vault was almost on line with this gate. but sixty feet away. Be tween the gate and the vault were the of bookkeeper, paying teller. receiving teller and discount clerk. each rallied or with wood or wire.
 You can judge of the strength of that blast when ! tell you that everything In that sixty feet was leveled. the small safe blown over and the counters twisted like a rail feuce. As soon as realized the situation groped for match and lighted gas jet though the room was SO full of powder smoke that 1t 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 n heap against tbe front door, second under the counter near where had picked my self up. and the third could not hnd' though I knew he must be under the vault door, which had been blown on 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 raillngs and parti' tions as be was hurled forward. The man under the counter began to show signs of life as oyerh0uled him, and' thinking he might prove troublesome, I tied him hand and foot You will wonder that was not severely hurt but that was the chance of accident The chair was completely wrecked but I got on with three or four painful bruises.
 Tho man under the counter had his nose broken, two ribs fractured and re- celved bad scalp wound, but he had no sooner recovered consciousness than he began to struggle and curse. When I told him that both his partners were dead. hc was awed to silence for awhile Then he began cursiug again. and stepped over to the police wire and sent in the signal Help wanted at once'' It had never been sent in before nor have the words gone over that wire since. In Ave minutes there were four bluecoats knocking at the door, and when let them fin my prisoner greeted them with jeers and curses and swore he would get even with me if 1t took 100 years.
 Tho leader, as told you, was kneel' Inr nt the door when the explosion oc.