The Springfield herald., 1912-10-18
"pEe" FosrER's STORY.

"When Denny died." said Peg. II
thought that had enough Of living on
the run all the time: / made up my
mind to settle down and live pretty
straight. / never had been pinched
but once. I got out of that scrape by
an alibi, SO that had a clean record.
But the way you bend tree 1t Is
bound to grow. and 1t was not long be-
fore I doubled up with Alec Foster.
who is now in his grave because he
would not listen to me- Alec was
always reckless. tell you the only
thing that will keep some men in the
traces is a woman.
when I went in with Alec he was
doing the hotels and doing them well.
Then he got 1t into his fiery head-he
had red hair-that his particular busi-
ness would be very much better II he
had a woman with him. I was willing
to do anything, and as It was summer.
we started out to do the seaside re-
sorts in style. Did you ever see Alec?
Well, you remember that he was about
as MISUNDERSTANDING fellow as
you would meet in a days travel.
When we went into a swell hotel and
registered under some military title,
you can bet that It went every time.
Alec could fool the best Of them. and
was not SO very slow myself.
'It was a part Of my duty to get on
very friendly terms with the women
in the hotels. Alec would do the
same with the men. By keeping our
eyes open we would pick out the
20 10 lat
for professional purposes at such
times as might be convenient After
we had got the game we'll planted we
would wait until some transient guest
arrived. It was usually dead easy
work. Hotels at watering places were
deemed so safe that few persons lock-
ed their doors. II they did It made
no difference, for ! never saw door
that Alec could not open II he had a
fair show.
ut was my work to enter the rooms
and do the tapping. II any one should
be aroused I could make an excuse
that would go much better than man
could Whenever was caught after
/ had picked up lot of things in any
of the other rooms always made a
great fuss about being robbed myself.
This carried great weight when people
were excited and had no time to think.
The. bolder the theft the better 1t goes.
generally. II got through the rooms
without arousing any one we made II
a point to report that we had been
robbed first at the off1ce. When the
other guests came to the oflce with
their tales of woe we had plenty of
sympathizers.
ALEC and worked the scheme up
and down the Atlantic coast We were
never arrested on the whole trip. So
far as know we were never even un-
der suspicion. We never kept the
stolen goods around. but would send
them concealed with other things, by
express to New York, or, some other
city, to be called for and delivered
upon payment of charges. We had
many amusing times helping detec-
tives look for the thieves. It seemed
30 ridiculous to me on several occa-
sions that II the men had been smart
they certainly would have seen by my
tender.
After the season had closed Alec
and 1 made tour of the country. and
1t was a star tour. We stopped at all
the flrst-class hotels in the large cities
and worked our little game to perfec-
tion. We never took anything but
diamonds and money. We immediate
ly pinched the stones from the set
tings to prevent positive Identification
in case We were discovered. We had
a. little trouble in Chicago, but easily
pulled out Of 1t with a liberal use of
greenbacks, of which we had plenty on
tap. Everything ran smoothly until
we tumbled into Philadelphia and put
up at the Girard House. got caught
dead to rights there in the room of a
banker. Alec, who was in the, corri-
dor, flew to my rescue, and was shot
through the lungs by night watch
man.
II had always urged him If ever
got pinched to stay out of the scrape,
as woman always had better show
OF getting free on the plea Of klepto-
mania. Alec was taken to hospital
and died In few days. l was tried,
convicted and sentenced to five years