The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1903-10-01
The K. ano L.
EXPRESS
ROBB cry
By W. BERT FOSTER
Copyright, 1905, by T. C. Mcclure

ever came under my notice, said Cap
tain Sphinx, was the K. and L. express
robbery. which occurred when l was
a 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
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 T
the wharf. 1t was built of wood a,
corrugated iron.
Craft were passing the end of
wha all night long There was a
~ S.. near by Every vessel at
dock 1 is keeper and the properly
of IT,. r.:.., ny is If was watched b
side, the lleS Of the wharf wpr
locked 1t o'clocE III the evening. an
if Il ,i.i'rr had let re place it wonlH
have u" y Spied by me of the poi
patr"' IS wNic' ~ up and down
the l" ;,ii night lr.
YCt - - !ntN " broken into. an';
out {" q re-. :: safe weighing
i,,i,
paclr nd val. IS to an amount
that '"n the en-. downtown polio"
dep ...,Ht wake W. with a decided
shock.
The II. and l.. people were 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 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 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!
lad enough for h""in-
niII.,. and when we got to the wharf
we learned that, despite the wreck Of
the building, the burglars had evident
~ 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 60 down
and poke about in the mud near the
dock.
1t was between Z and 8 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 week,
and he had just keeled over on this
night and slept like a log in the stor-
age building-was sleeping. in fact.
when the longshoremen came to work.
He swore the robbery could not have
been committed before midnight. He
had made his regular rounds until aft
er that hour.
Then l 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 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
mass of wreckage. l picked up in
corner a 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 picture"
asked the head clerk. and showed
him the bit Of gilded wood.
"Why, there wasn't 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. l 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 it got there. AS stood in the
wrecked room and looked through the
ragged hole in the wall which gave me
a clear view of the river my eyes
rested upon big vessel being towed in
To her dock. ~ .>-.