The daily silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1903-1907, 1904-01-20
THE K AND L. EX-
PRESS ROBBERY
sY v. sHW FOSTER

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
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
insly active fraternity of smuggiers
who operate in New York harbor.
The K. and l.. express company had
an office on Long wharf. at the foo of
Jones street. and. doing a foreign bus-
mess only. az 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
ferry slip near by. Every vessel at
the dock had its keeper, and the prop
erty Of the company itself was watch
ed by an old and trusted Waterman.
Besides. the gates of the wharf were
locked at Z o'clock in the evening, and
If a tighter had left the place 1t 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 1t was removed a safe
weighing a couple Of tons and con-
tanning none packets and valuables
to an amount that made the entHe
downtown police department wake up
with a decided shock.
The X. and L.. people were wild. n
well they might be. The chief took
hold Of the matter himself. and I was
the scene of the robbery with him.
And I tell you frankly 1 was sorry to
be put on the job, for as loon as I
heard the circumstances surrounding
this break It looked TO me like a blank
wall that would be mighty hard either
to climb over or dig through.
The first report we got was that the
two story Olive 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!
That was bad enough for a begin
ming. And when we got to the WHAT
we learned that. despite the wreck of
the building, the burglars had evident
Iy been unable to force the safe and
had finally carried 1t away with them.
The corner of the structure was torn
away, and as soon as the chief learned
right there where the fioor was gap
ing and the walls blown out he declar-
ed 1t 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 a diver to go down
and poke about In the mud near the
dock.
1t was between I and s 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 a
week, and he had just keeled ove on
this night and slept like a log in the
storage 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 at
ter that hour.
| Then I made the discovery by TALK
ing to the first clerk who had arrived
flee 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 Of
flee and mounted to the second floor.
where the safe was kept? But the
chief was 50 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 ne had heard the report of the
diver.
Bur I 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 a
corner a piece of what l supposed to
be a part of a picture frame, for one
side of the stick was heavily giIded.
where's the rest OF the picture?" T
asked the head clerk. ana I showed
him the bit OF gilded wood.
why. there wasn't a picture IN the
WALL" he declared. IT don't know
where that came from"
Now. that was a little thing. but It
was too odd to be overlooked. I set
my mind at work upon that broken
piece Of wood.
AS 1t was not a picture frame and
there had been nothing in the Office