The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1903-11-05
The X. Qno L.
EXPRESS
ROBB cry
By w. BERT FOSTER


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One of the most peculiar cases that
ever came under my notice, said Cap
tain Sphinx, was the X. and L. express
robbery, which occurred when | was
member of the old steamboat squad.
My work consisted mostly In inyesti-
eating river piracies and keeping a
sharp eye upon that small but exceed
ingly 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 bust
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 a fer
ry slip near by. Every vessel at the
dock had its 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 o'clock in the evening. and
if a lighter had left the place it would
| have been spied 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
couple of tons and containing money
packets and yaluables to an amount
that made the entire downtown police
department wake up with a decided
shock.
The X. and L. people We're wild. and
well they might be. The chief took
hold of the matter himself, and was
| one of the men selected to go down to
the scene of the robbery with him
And l tell you frankly was sorry to
be put on the job, for as soon as
heard the circumstances surrounding
this break it looked to me like a blank
, wall that would he mighty hard either
to climb over on 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
4 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.
The corner of the structure was torn
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 20 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 companys
Waterman was already in custody and
was scared blue/It 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 bullding-was sleeping. in fact
when the ongshoremen came 10 work.
He swore the robbery could not have
/ been committed before midnight. He
had made his regular rounds until aft
er 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 kept2 But the chief was
! 80 confident that the safe really had
not been stolen, only blown through
| the wall and had 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 a
mass Of wreckage picked up in
corner piece of what | supposed to be
a part of a picture frame, for one side
of the stick was heavily gilded.
where's the rest of the pictureY"
asked the head clerk, and | showed
him the bit of glded wood
"Why, there wasn't a picture on the
wall" he declared 81 don't know
where that came from"
Now, that was a little thing, but it
was too odd to be overlooked. | set
my mind at work upon that broken
| piece of wood.
AS it was not a picture frame and
! there had been nothing in the office
that was gilded. | could not understand
how II got there. As stood in the
wrecked room and looked through the