The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1906-05-11

" 4
misty as even The Thames valley is ca
. pable of making them. RalIles smear
( cd vaselinc upon the plated parts of his
precious wheel before starting, and
our dear laEdlady co-seted us both and
prayed we might see nothing of bur
glars.
It was about Midnight when we
cycled through Kingston to Surbiton,
having trundled our machines across
Ham fields. mournfUl in the mist as
those by Acheron. and so over Tedding-
ton bridge
l often wonder why the pantry win
dow is the vulnerable point Of nine
houses out Of ten This house of ours
was almost the tenth for the window
in question had bars of sorts, but not
the right sort The only bars that Raj
fies allowed to beat him were the kind
that are let into the stone outside.
Those fixed within are merely screwed
10 the woodwork, and YOU may I'M
screw as many as necessary if Won take
.ln trouble ANA have the time. Barred
windows are usually devoid Of other
fasteners worthy the name This one
We H., o,..eptiou tn tbot foolish rulp
and u,,eb with tba rapl.n.fe did its
I,,,fna.. ann ,fvfnr bouSebolders
some valuable hints, and perhaps de-
serving a GOOD mark from the critics.
These I'm amy case. are m, points that
voul3 see TO were | rich stock
broker in a river side suburb In eiv-
inc GOOD advice. however. should not
have omitted to sry that we had left
our machines i'm the se.ai.,,ular shrub
berry in front. or that i;ai.lc; laI most
ingoniously fitted our lam,s with dd-k
slides. which enabled Us to leave them
burning
1t proved sufficient 70 mscrew the
bars ut the bottom only and then to
wrench them Ia either side Neither
of us had grown stout with advancing
years. and I'm a few minutes we had
both wormed through into the sink and
thence 10 the floor 1t waS not an ali
solutcly noiselcSs process but once in
the pantry we were mice ANA NJ Ion
ger blind mice. There was a gas brack-
ct, but we did not NEEDLE with that
RatIles went armed these nights with
better light than gas. If it We're not
immoral | might recommend Il dark
lantern which was more or less his pat
eut 1t was that handy invention. the
electric torch. fitted by Rallies with
dark hood to fulfill the functions of &
81 de. | had held it through the bars
while he undid the screws. and now he
held it to the keyholc. in which a key
was turned upon the other side.
There was a pause for consideration,
and in the pause we put on our masks.
1t was never known that these Thames
valley robberics were all committed by
miscreants dcckel i'm the livery of
crime, but that was because until this
night we had never even shown our
masks. 1t was a point upon which
Rallies had insisted on all feasible oc-
casions since his furtive return to the
world. Tonight it twice nearly lost
us everything-but YOU shall hear.
There is a forcens for turning KEYS
from the wrong side OF the door. but
the implement IS not SO easy of manip-
ulation as it might he. Rallies for one
preferred Il sharp knife and the cor
ner of the panel You 90 through the
panel because that is tbinnest of
course. in the corner nearest the key.
and you use Il knife when you can be-
cause if makes least noise Rut if docs
take minutes. and even I can remem-
Der shifting the electric torch from one
hand to the other before the aperture
was large enough 10 receive the hand
and wrist of Raflles.
He had at such times n motto of
which | might have made earlier use
but the fact is that I have only once
before described 4 DOWNRIGHT hrrclor,
in which assisted and that without
knowing it at the time. The most
solemn student Of these annals cannot
affirm that he has emf tbrouob many
doors in our company since what was
to me the maiden effort TO which al.
lude. |. however. have cracked only
too many a crib in conjunction with 4
J. Rahles and Mt the crucial moment
he would whisper. Victory or Worm.
wood Scrubs. Bunny" or instead of
NORWOOD Scrubs il might be PORT.
land Bill. This time it was neither one
nor the other. for with that very word
victory" upon his Inns they wbitene1