The daily Alaskan., 1905-04-19
THE WATCHMAN'S
 STORY
Iconrrlrht. Ilas hy .. D. Levls.l

I II Parker's bank for three years when my adventure happened A burglar alarm connected with doors and windows and a special wire ran from the bank to the police station. was required to send in a signal over this wire every thirty minutes. The code Of signals ran thus: One hush on the button. "All Is well" two pushcs. q am ill.," three pushes. "IIelp Is wanted at once"
 one winters night, between calls, | fell asleep and was awakened by a hand clutching 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 "All 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 inne' doors. They used what Is called a blacssmith's drill An Of them seemed familiar with It's working, and they had brought along no less than six dif eerent drills for the machine. Wors wns begun just under the lock. the men Spelling each other at Intervals of ten minutes. When the o'clock signal was sent in. they had made very sIirht impression on the hard metal, hui at 2,SO the signs were more encsur' aging.
 At 8 o'clock the trio were delighted with the progress Of the work. AtSSo thcy ceased drilling, blew lot Of DOW. der into the hole and Inserted fuse, and pretty soon there was an explosion which tore great piece out Of the door. but did not burst 1t open.
 They did not use the drill again on tbe door. but on a closer examination decided to blow it open. Al 4'4o all was ready. While the leader placed inc fuse the other two picked up my chair to carry me into the president s room. All were to remain there until | the exnloslon was over Just wha; happepcd to bring about the premature cxnlosicn could never be learned, but ,be prohabilitics are that in his haste ] tbe man cut the fuse too short He was stlll kneellng at the door and the three of us had our backs Co it and were about eight feet away when the mine was sprung. The Jar Of the ex- ploslon was felt two blocks away.
 I cannot remember that [ heard the exnlcSion. I simply remember being lifted up and hurled forward. The next thing l knew ! was sitting up | with a hand over cach ear, aud the room was in a midnight darkness | felt so stupid and dazcd that to was many minutes before could place my self. The gag was out of my mouth, and inc roncS with which had been bound tc the chair were hanging loose ly on my aru,s and legs. When be- 1 gan to feel around to see where ! was, i discoverc, that was close Co the wire gate by which all employees en- tered thc le,nk mcloyu-c. The door ot ] the vault was almost on a line with this gate. but sixty feet away. Be tween the gate aud the vault were the commitments of bookkeepcr, paving l teller. reccivins teller and discount clerk. each railed od with wood or | wire.
 You can judge Of the strength of that blast when tell you that everything in that sixty feet was leyeled, the smau st fe blown over and the counters twisted like a rail fence. AS soon as realized the situation l groped for a match and lighted gas jet thoug'' the room was so fun of powder smoke ! that it was some time before | could sec foot from my nOsc. When the smoke lifted so that rould get about II I Urhtcd more gas and then looked for ;he burglars.
 Il Cur os ulcm lay In heap against II l.r front door. second under the
 o,n.e~ near where | had picked my ;,lC Up ant thc third ] could not find.
 ',orch | knew he must be under the
 ault door which bad been blown ou
 nd lav on the floor. The man at the .-n7t 6sar was stone dead. The doc.
 DTS said tGa- his hdy must have
 uept dovu an the raIlin-s and part
 ,oYS as he vas hurled forward. The
 nam under tho counter began to show signs Of life as | oyerhauled him. and
 linking he might prove troublesome, tied him hand and foot You Will romlcr that | was not severely hurt
 mt that was the chance Of accident The chair was completely wrecked, but got of with three or four painful bruises.
 Tho msn under the counter had his tosc broken. two ribs fractured and re- acivc,l a bad scalp wound. but he had 10 sooner recovered consciousness thar he began to struggle and curse. When told him that both his partners werS lead. bN was awed to silence for awhile Then he began curslng again. and s,epped over to the police wire and senl in the signal "IIelp wanted at once II had never been sent In before, uol have the words gone over that wirC slnce. In five minutes there were foul bluecoats knocking at the door, and