The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-08-24
A RETIRED BURGLAR.
HE TELLS OF A CURIOUS INCIDENT
IN HIS CAREER.

house in q small town in this state. This
safe stood in tho dining room against tho
wall on one side. My light fell on it when
T opened the door of the room to look in.
1t was a big, old fashioned safe, more like
" here to contain documents and mort
! cages and one thing and another like that
than money. But a safe is always a pleas
ant thing to look at. 1t makes you think
of money anyway. And so I was glad to
see this safe, and, of course, I hoped I'd
ed to swing my lamp around to take a
glance at the rest of the room before walk
ing in. but I hadn'tmore'n begun to move
it before I brought into the light a pair Of
shoes with the heels on the floor and the
soles up at an angle of about 45 degrees,
toes toward the safe. There were feet in
those shoes, of course, and tho legs went
up from the other side at an angle of 45
degrees to what I didn't need to look to
see was a man sitting there in a chair in
front of the safe asleep.
"Well, now, you know, that vas unex-
pected, and while n man in my business
must expect unexpected things and be
ready for 'em and not be surprised or star
tied this was really so very unusual that
I will admit I was just a little bit startled
by it, and my hand must have shaken a
little, and while under most circum-
stances that wouldn't have made the
slightest difference IL the world here it
made all the difference, for the hand that
shook was the n holding the lamp,
which was at that moment close to the
jamb of the door. I nocked the lamp
against it-just a little bit of a tick, but
enough to wake up the sleeper. I could
see his feet draw up toward the chair.
"Then I wanted to get out myself, and
I started along the hall I was in toward
the cellar door I'd come in at, but I hadn't
taken two steps before I heard a man say:
"'Hold on there-wait! Come back!
"And I went back. 1t was a command,
but it was an invitation, too, and I was
ready to meet it or to chance it, and l
went back to the dining room and looked
in and saw a man lighting the gas; he'd
been having for q light before q kerosene
lamp that I saw now standing on the ia
BILE with the oil burned out. The mar
turned and says to me-:
"'Come in
"He wasn't quite so tall as I was, but
he was o pretty solid sort of a citizen, who
could have held his own with me in a
square rough and tumble easy, and he was
a man who was accustomed to bossing
things and having folks do what he said.
I couldn't tell for the life Of me what he
was, what his business was, but I guess
he was just simply the richest man in the
town and spent his time looking after his
property. And when I'd come in he says:
whats your business, my friend9'
"And I said I was a travelling black
smith.
"'H'mp he says. You do most of your
work nights?'
"And I said yes, I did do more or less
night work.
"'And I imagine you've got a handy
kit of tools right in that bag there now
he says, pointing to my bag, that I had set
down alongside Of the chair I was sitting
in.
And I said yes, I had tools there for
any ordinary work.
"'You see that safe?' the maj says,
pointing toward the safe he'd been sitting
in front Of when I first looked in, and I
looked at it and saw the big, old fashioned
safe, looking very imposing and strong,
but a safe that a man that knew how could
cut into about as easy as he could a cheese,
and I said yes, I did.
"'Well, says the man, Il want to get
into that safe. There's some papers in
there that I've got to have in court tomor-
row morning, or this morning rather, at
So-and-so at 10 o'clock. And I've broken
the key, and I've been trying here for half
the night to break the safe open. Do you
suppose you could open it?'
"Well, I had to kind of cough to conceal
my emotion, because I could have opened
the old box, you know, in ten minutes,
but I said yes, I could open it, I thought.
"'Well, now,' says the man, you pitch
in and open it, and he sat down in achair
there near the safe and got ready to see me
work. And I put my bag up on the table
and got out my tools aid went at it, with
the owner looking on and greatly interest
ed. "In about three-quarters of an hourI
had the door of the safe off and laid on its
back on the floor.
"'You certainly are a handy man with
tools, eh?' says the man, and then he asked
me to look through the safe and see that
there was no money In it, which was
quite right. There wasn't any. You'd
have got nothing says the man. But
you've saved me q lot Of bother and trou-
ble,' he says, getting those papers for me
in time, and I want to pay you for it.
How much do you think I ought to give
your
"And I said I'd leave that to him.
"'How much do you make a day?' he
says:
"And I told him my earnings varied;
that sometimes I made nothing and some
times I made a good deal, but I thought I
didn't average more than $50 a day. He
seemed to have his own ideas about that,
too, but he handed me over a $50 note and
said the work was worth it to him.
"And then he escorted me to the door.
And he didn't ask me not to come back
nor threaten nor warn nor anything. He
knew that my knowledge of his habits
about money insured him from any fur
ther visits from me, as far as that was
concerned, and he wasted no words over
it. He just let me out the door and didn't
even say good night.
Curious things happen in my businesss
Yes, they do, sure; no doubt about it. A
man may go for days and weeks and moth
ing whatever happen; everybody sound
asleep and you just walk in and walk out,
and that's all there is to it, but when
anything does happen It's more'n likely
to be something out Of the usual course"
New York Sun.
Would Lose Less.
It is often said that no European can