The Green Forest tribune., 1912-10-04
DETECTIVE REYNOLDS TALE.

Ut was rather strange" said De tective Reynolds, that l should be given the robbery in the house of Banker Rochot to work up, inasmuch as 1 had something of an inkling into his method of doing business, through working up a case of alleged forgery against his son, Emil-which, by the way, was proved easily enough, but was ended by the old man putting up considerable money to square the busi ness.
 l imagined when the report of the robbery came in that it would prove to be an ordinary breaking job, but I soon found a condition of affairs which started my wits humming for all they were worth.
 T was aroused from my bed to turn out on the case shortly before daylight on Sunday morning, and went up- town, not feeling any too well pleased. 1 found all Of the Rochot family up and laboring under great excitement They were not so much worried over the robbery as they were over the fact that there was a dead man in the house. He was found in the hallway of the basement
 "Rochot told me he had been work ing quite late, following a set of com plicated books belonging to a mining company in which he was largely in- terested. When he retired for the night he was in a very restless state and could not sleep. He occupied room on the top floor. While he was tossing in his bed he heard a peculiar noise. It sounded to him as if some one were scraping a piece of metal against a pipe. His idea was that the noise was in the street, and was made by some workmen who had been at work repairing leak in the water main in Goth street. near his home. The sound annoyed him, but did not make him suspicious. It continued steadily, and he would, perhaps, not have known that the sound came from the turning of ratchet drill into his safe by thieves for several hours if he had not heard the stairs leading to the second or third floor creak.
 He was startled, but did not make any outcry. He was plucky old fel- low at that. Instead of shouting to See if any member of his family, all of whom were sleeping on the two floors below him, was up, he got quiet ly out of bed to see who it was In the dim light which came from can dle he could barely see the forms of two men, moving slowly in the hall toward the front room door. Their step was noiseless, and he saw them disappear into the room occupied by his wife. He reasoned, from their movements, that they were thieves, bent upon stealing without awaken ing any one, and knew that his wife would not be aroused, for she was slightly deaf.
 "Rochot came down from the top floor to his own room, where he had several revolvers. He took the larg- est one and then quietly aroused his son, who was bit of a hunter and had two shotguns. It so happened that the son had a friend with him, which made 1t shotgun for each of them. They crept down the stairs to the second floor. and in the hall they could hear the thieves talking in a whisper.
 "The three men took position where they could shoot without en- dangering their own lives. They had only few minutes to wait when the crooks came through the hall, eyi- dently with the intention of going out through the front door One of them ! carried candle. When they got in range the three men fred. The thieves replied with 8 couple of shots and made a dash for the basement The Rochot party rushed to the windows to fire on the men when they left the house. but were a moment too lata. as the men had turned tho corner.