The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-07-05
HE GOT A
SCARE
By EDWARD MELLARD

that sort O. thing. It's one thing to b,
charged with burglary and another t
be charged with murderin'. Besides
a bad name gained in one field count.
the same In another.
! had done good job in a rich man.
house and got away with $500. THAI
wasn't much. you may say, considerin
the wealth of the party, but the swal
wasn't in Jewels or silverware Of
bonds that has to be turned into cash
but in bank bills, no one Of 'em ovel
$50.
broke a tenner to git out o
town and took train, putin my
satchel up on the rack beside me, just
like any other passenger. 1t had my
tools in 1t, and In case / was spotted
thought I might leave 'em behind
me. Then I pulled newspaper out o.
my pocket and begun to read.
My eyes fell on notice of the muir
der OF q man whose mudlated body
had been found In trunk. was read.
I'm this article when we got to sta
ton where Teller sittin' beside me
got up to go out His bag was In the
rack beside mine. and / watched him
as he reached for 1t. Then noticed
that 1t looked just like mine, and l
wasn't sorry to see him make mis-
take and take mine instead Of his'n.
wanted to get rid OF the tools. and
didn't dare throw 'em away for fear
some detective was on my track and
would pounce on 'em and me.
''What luckr I remarks to myself.
But You bet didn't say It aloud l
just waited till the train stopped,
watchin' the young Teller from under
the rim of my hat. fearin' all the time
he'd look back at the rack and see his
mistake. But he stood In the aisle
waitin' and never looked to the rack or
down at my bag that he was carryin.
When the train stopped and he got out
laughed all over.
! thort I'd take the feller's bag when
/ got ont, for he was respectable
lookin' young man. and / might prove
anybody spottin' me wrong by havin'
his property with me. But / fist left
1t alone till got to the end o. my jour
ney; then I took 1t up and carried 1t
out. hopin' to lose myself in big city.
II could git by any plain clothes man
watchin' at the depot / would be all
right
But that's exactly what did
not do. At the gate man sprang
through the crowd of those lookip' for
friends comm from the train and clap
ped pair o. bracelets on me. An
other one took my satchei. and was
hustled off to police station.
When they brought me before the
inspector the first thing he did was to
open the satchel. What was my hor-
ror to see him take out. among other
things, bundle which. when he I'M
rolled 1t, turned out to be a human
hand. A cold chill ran through me. l
about found in trunk and every other
murder ever committed. and l was
sure I'd 60 to the chair for some of
'em.
You ought to have seen the face of
that inspector and the cops and plain
clothes men standin' round when he
unrolled that hand. They had no more
doubt they'd caught a murderer than
that they were police officers, and l
was so frightened that | must have
looked more like murderer than the
real thing. ! was searched and 1922
n n coy,,. >hor FrnrA ~, v,ao
I'd been telegraphed for on account
of the robbery I'd committed. bein'
suspected o. that job. especially. since
I'd left town suddenly. But when
they saw the hand they at once con-
nected me with another matter. cause
no one had been hurt in the robbery.
I couldn't see any way out of It ex-
,ept to exchange the chair for ten
years. term in states prison. I'd have
been glad enough to do that IL could.
but how could I? What puzzled me c
was how such q respectable lookin' s
hap as the Teller that took my bag 7
,ould "a been gittin' away with parts S
J some one he'd murdered. But, you {
Zee, sometimes there is murderers 4,
imong the swells. =
The only thing could do was to :
seep my mouth shut and let the police
70 their own road in the matter. The
after a few days. put me
through the third degree; but, since
hadn't the sin o. murder on my con-
cience. he didn't git anything out O.
ne. II IL hadn't been for the hand
ound in my bag the money would b
a. helped fix the robbery on me. but
he hand threw 'em off the track en-
irely.
The police concluded to put It out to
he public that they had the man who
ad done the trunk murder, and had
o laugh at the theories they built up L
nd the lies they told One o. the the
ries was so ingen'us that / woke up
ne mornin' not sure whether / was q
he trunk murderer or not. 81
/ haven't any doubt they would "a q
haired me on one or another o. them q
heories. with an ambitious prosecut. y =
u attorney TO ram 1t down into the .
1ry, II 1t hadn't "a been that a medi-
al student took It into his head to IL
AIRY my satchel with my kit In II to a Al
olice officer and tell how he had ex. pI
hanged IL for one with hand In 1t he n
-as taking home to dissect al
The mistake helped me, after all. d'