The daily morning Alaskan., 1903-11-10
THE WATCHMAN'S
 STORY
rro,v,,vbt 1sog bv e R. Lswis.l

adventure happened A burglar alarm
 connected with doors and windows and
 a special wire ran from the bank to the
 police station. I was required to send
 in a signal over this wire every thirty
 minutes. The code of signals ran thus One push on the button. "An Is well;'' two pushes. "I am lll;' three pushes, ! Help Is wanted at once"
 One winters night. between calls, ! fell asleep and was awakened by a
 hand cutchiug my throat 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 "Ali 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 biacksm.th's drill All of them seemed | familiar with It's working and they had brought along no less than six diff
 fersnt drills for the machine. Work l was begun just under the lock. the men ! spelling each other at intervals of ten minutes. When the o'clock signal
 Uas sent in. they had made a very slight impression on the hard metal. but at2.3O the signs were more encour- aging.
 Al 8 o'clock the trio were delighted
 with the progress of the work. At S'SO -hav ceased drilling. blew a lot of pow B,r into the hole and Inserted a fuse.
 and pretty soon there was an explosion which tore great piece out Of the door. but dId not burst it open.
 They did not use the drill again on
 tbs door. but on a closer examination decided to blow it open. At 44O al.
 v.as ready. While the leader placed -bs fuse the other two picked mp my ! .hair to carry me into the president
 -,om. All were 5o remain there until fne explosion was over. Just what bapDened to bring about the premature explosion could never be learned. but ! fba probabilities are that iu his haste tle man cut the fuse too short He
 vos stiI kneeIng at the door and the | three of us had our backs Go lt and
 were about eight feet away when me mine was sprung. The jar of Che e1-
 1Ios.on was felt two blocks away.
 cannot remember that ] heard the
 explosion. ! simply remember being lifted up and hurled forward. Tue
 rayt thing knew ] was sitting up !. vf.r hand over each ear and the | room was In midnight darkness. ] ! felt SO stupid and dazcd that it was
 many minutes before ] could place my
 ..r The gag was out of my mouth, and the ropes with which ] had been .ounl to the chair were hanging loose .r on my arms and legs When ] be
 .ar to feel around Co see where ] was, ! [ discovered that 2 was close to the
 wire eate by which all employees en-
 tered fhe bank lnclosure. The door of rho vault was almost on a line with . rh.s gate. but sixty feet away. De- tween the gate and the vault were the .omDar-meuts or bookkeeper, paying ! teller. receiving teller and discount
 erars. each raued od with wood or . wire.
 You can judge of the strength of that blast when ! tell you that every thing In that sixty feet was leveled, the
 small safe blown over and the counters twisted like a rail fence. As soon as ]
 realized tbe situation I groped for a
 match and lighted a gas Jet though . .1e room was SO full Of powder smoke . That it was some time before I could
 gee foot from my nose. When the ! smoke lifted SO that could get about, ! I lighted more gas and then looked for : the burglars.
 One Of them lay in a heap against ! tle front door. a second under the ! counter near where ] had picked my ! self uD. and the third l could not hnd' ! though ! knew he must be under the vaurt 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 bis body must have ! swept down an the railings and part. 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, ! 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 ! ] got off with three or four painful ! bruises.
 The man under the counter had bis nose broken. two ribs fractured and re
 ceivcd a bad scalp wound, but be had ! no sooner recovered consciousness than
 he began to struggle and curse. When
 I told him that both his partners were ! dead he was awed to silence for awhile. . Then be began cursing 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 five minutes there were four . bIuecoats 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 ] told you, was kneel- Ing at the door when the explosion oc- . cured We found him under lt, crush
 cd and burned and bearing little sem.