Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1905-06-24
BFECHFNBROOK
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will say to you right at the outset |
that l was 1.-THE boy at Beechen-
brook"
Beechenbrook was and is yet great
house a few miles outside Of Manches-
ter. At the time of my story 1t was
occupied by the man who built 1t,
large manufacturer of the famous
manufacturing town. 1t stood in the
middle of thirty acres of ground, and
house, barns, lawns and gardens re-
auired the services of about fifteen ser
wants
In the bookstore In which | was em-
ployed In London | was said to have
excellent taste and judgment In the
arrangement of country libraries. even
though / was only boy of 10, and
few weeks after the owner of Beechen-
brook had given us an order was sent
up there to put away the volumes.
On the day / arrived the owners
wife and daughter started for Scotland
on visit, while Mr. Markham him.
self departed for Paris to attend GER
tain business. All the servants about
the place except the head gardener,
two grooms and two women in the
kitchen were given leave from their
employer to go to the station, two
miles away They were not long gone
when passing through the hall | saw
three masked men trying to open the
plate room door | crept back to the
hall, across into the drawing room.
and at the far end of the big room
raised the window and stepped to the
ground
Once out / made my way to the sta
hles, but there surprise awaited me.
found horse hitched to cart and
the gardener and head groom standing
beside the vehicle Had the two men
not had their backs to me and been
so earnestly engaged in conversation
they must have seen and heard my APP
pr0ach.
had my lips parted to speak, when
| suspected something wrong. The
plumber was to be carried off in the
cart, and the three men servants were
in league with the robbers. 1t came
to me Ike fash and In time to save
myself | drew back and wondered
what l should do.
Queerly enough, l was more upset
at the thought of the two mile run In
the rain and darkness to town than in
returning to the house and facing the
robbers. was out of the house and
could hide In safety till morning. but
that idea never came to me.
| was all for preventing the rob
berry, and pretty soon | skulked back
to the open window. In so doing |
saw the outside door of the dining
room ajar. The groom had let the
robbers in at shat door. and the dis
lance from the door to the open ditch
was only fifteen feet
When l had re-entered the house
and crept back to the door leading into
the dining room the fellows had given
up trying to open the plate room doc,
with key and We're working at It
with iron bars. Five minutes late,
they had 1t open. and then the groom,
passed out piece after piece. while the
robbers deposited them in their sacks
Everything was Of solid silver and
to save space nearly every piece wa,
bent or broken by hand or foot Tb,
trio worked in hurry ana M the enc
of half an hour the room was enpty
and Ave sacks were full
l had been watching everything =,
a helpless way, having no plan an,
no hope, and it was only when TN
men shouldered the sacks to carr,
them out that made move
l determined to try the effect Of
scare, and as the last of them stepne
outdoors l fired the pistol INTO the sac