The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-02-08
Foxy Mr.. Blake.

| | was sitting on my porch one after
noon when man came in at the gate
with a lawn sprinkler. A few mo-
ments later he was trying to sell me
one, declaring that 1t had a patent
ball valve.
"Get out Of these premises as quick.
ly as possible" 1 said, cor I'll help
you"
The man, abashed, turned TO go. He
had not got far before / called him
back and apologlzed for my harshness,
handed him a cigar, asked him TO be
seated and told him the following
story:
| ~ am retired railroad detective.
Railroads are good pay, and was
| successful in hunting train robbers
and other pllferers, thus regaining for
| them a number of considerable sums
Of money. My bonuses made me com
Portable, and part of them are in
this house aud grounds.
II am going TO tell you about the
last case l ever handled. / was at
work at the time for the " L. and X
| railroad. They wanted n man of the
name of Charles Blake for getting
away with 100000 My reward was
to be $4,000 If l caught him and Sc
| cured the return of the money.
| tracked Blake into the Rocky noun
talns and arrested him. He was sens-
! bic and knew his own interests He
told me that he would willingly go
with me and would return every cent
he had stolen. relying on the company
not TO prosecute him.
II assured him that what the com
pany wanted was the money and.
promised him immunity. He was an
educated and refined man and insisted
that he be not subjected to the igno-
miny of riding handcuffed. Since he
was n puny little fellow that could
swing around my head by one leg and
/ saw no reason why he should be
overanxious to contend with me, as
sented. He sat by me apparently as
my friend, and no one knew that he
was my prisoner.
TITS a long Journey from the Rock
! les TO Chicago, where | was taking
him, and / was glad TO have some one
TO talk to. Blake was very intelligent
and entertaining. lie was an engineer
and had worked at his profession on
many roads for which l had done de.
/ tectlve work After the present dis
agreeable matter was settled up he
had scheme on hand by which he
could make ten times the amount
which he had Itolen. He had invented
a railroad self acting switch which
could never send a train awry, He ex-
| plalned It TO me. making drawings of
II on the back Of an old letter, and
confess | was delighted with the mans
ingenuity
What puzzled me was why n man
with so much ability should have put
himself In the way to spend most of
his life in state prison. If he had only
applied one-tenth OF the ingenuity he
had eXerted I'm his scheme OF robbery
to any honest purpose he might have
been eminently successful. / said as
much to him, and he said he knew It,"
Before we reached the Mississippi
river was In complete sympathy with
my prisoner and congratulatlng myself
upon the approaching acquisition OF
to reach Chicago he told me about an
air pump he had invented. Offering the
whole thing to me II | would take out
the patent and sell the rights. After !
had established Il could give him an
interest or not, as liked. As for him
he proposed 10 give all his attention TO
his railroad switch. Naturally | was
interested and was quite absorbed in
the principle Of his pump, which be
explained TO me.
""rhere is ball valve TO IT, he
said, the ball lying in socket. and
the greater the air pressure behind It
the tighter it holds. It's like this
Twisting the letter on which he had
drawn his switch into cornucopia
he dropped paper wad into the large
end, and II sank at once into the small
end. When | blow, he said, you'll
see that the wad stays right where It
is. He put the small end into his
mouth and pointed the cornucopla at
my eyes and within foot of my face
Then he blew.
81 was looking TO see the working Of
the ball valve when | suddenly felt
the flames Of Tophet In my eyes, in
my nose, in my mouth, in any crevlce
open TO them. AS fot seeing anything, ]
was blind as bat, and the pain In my
eyes was excrciating. My nostrils
and the roof OF my mouth were on
fire. The follow had blown red pepper
In my face.
"While was gasplng, sputterlng,
trying to wipe away the pepper, the
rascal ran 10 the car door, shouting,
My friend has got At; I'm going for
help The train was moving some
twenty miles an hour, but he found n
"rassy slope gu to which he jumped
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