The Alaska citizen., 1911-02-22

aOOut the daTk- His deep breathing attested the fact that he was slum. ber.ng quietly. and my young friend was working as calmly and uncon. cernedly as you could ask. He ransacked the drawers of a | dressing case. examined the clothing of the sleeper. pocketing various articles which pleased his fancy. He eyed. covetously, a solitaire stone set in ring, which gleamed on the sleeper's finger. thought he might try to slip 1t oil. but he did not
 standing by the wall so small that a man could lift 1t and the young fellow finally turned his atten- tion to this. examining 1t critically It had combination almost as big as it's door. Indeed, from appear ances, 1t was mostly combination.
 Most of those little six or eight tumbler-lock housesafes can be opened in fifteen minutes by any body who is capable of opening a can of tomatoes, but my young friend puzzled and puzzled over 1t like a regular greener
 By straining my ears, I could all most hear him miss 1t. and I want ed to go in and open that little box for him so bad l couldn't hard ly keep out He worked and wor- ried with 1t back and forth, until he was as absorbed in the thing as kid with new puzzle
 I'm afraid We both forgot the party sleeping on the bed: at least I know I did, and was considerably startled when shadow came be- tween me and the young fellow squatting on the floor
 "A strong, husky-looking shadow he was, too; an iron-jawed chap and something of a cat-like treader him. self. He had sneaked out of his ! downy couch with a gun as big as a young cannon, and was between the burglar and the window as neat as you could ask
 Then there came a sharp click, the ominous, sullen click of a re- volver hammer, which isn't often mistaken under these circumstances for anything else, and the young man whirled like flash and stood crouching with the automatic half raised. The man in the pajamas laughed
 Don't do it!' he said; don't even think about 1t; 1t isn't polite; Us rude!
 The consistency of his remarks was apparent. He had the drop.
 Drop that! Drop it' he com manded. The young man hesitated moment and then allowed the au- tomatic to slide gently to the floor. I believe 1t was we'll for him that he did SO.
 Tt had gone far enough Up to that point I had been simply an in terested spectator now I felt called on to assist professionally. So slipped silently over the window easement and approached the gen. tleman who was issuing so many commands. The young fellow saw me, but he didn't flick an eyelash.
 There came dull impact of solid instrument on the cranial structure of this person who was about to say something further to humiliate his captive
 "Unfortunately. he set of one chamber of his cannon as I hit him, and while he did no damage ex- cept to the plaster, 1t made a roar which must arouse the house if not the entire neighborhood. It was annoying, as felt sure that if we had the time we could open that safe between us. To lose no time in beating a retreat appeared the only alternative, though, after that; and I intimated the same to the youngstel.
 Wait minute he whispered, let's take 1t with us'
 T hadn't thought of 1t, but 1t was easy enough. We carried 1t to the window and heaved 1t out where 1t would fall on the soft turf Then we slid down the rope, after low ering the window carefully licked the grapple loose, and, carrying the safe between us, beat a hasty re- treat toward the river.
 The place we finally stumbled to in the dark and drizzle I couldn't locate again exactly, but 1t was some where near this end of the high bridge. We lugged the box into an alley and deposited 1t in a place partly sheltered from the rain under the lee of shed and back of some rubbish lumber. It had become pret- ty noticeably heavy, and, in a whis- pered conversation, we agreed de- cidedly that 1t couldn't contain any thing less than gold and silver enough to buy up half of Minnesota. |
 "The youns fellow immediately set to work on the combination