The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1913-01-28
ESTABLISHED 1876

coach suddenly opened and the eight
passengers faced genuine holdup.
Hands upr' ordered the masked man
in the doorway as he held a big re-
volver in either hand. There was In
slant obedience on the part OF the eight
passengers.
The masked man drove the four
moody passengers down to the other
end of the car. where the card players
sat like statues. their hands high
above their heads. Quickly, deftly.
the man stripped them OF their jewels,
ordered them to open their bags and
deliver their money and valuables-
Like a fash his weapons were here.
there and everywhere. Once he
caught the little brown man edging
away toward the door. and only the
cold of the steel barrel brought the
writhing passenger to a realization
that he must give up more than he
had lost before
The highwayman left the brown
maR for the last. One by one he bad
stripped the others of everything that
was of value, but still the missing
watches had not come to light Three
reyolyers sagged the pockets of the
bandit, for the bankers had been arm
ed Now they huddled frightened,
nervous looking group, against the
rear door. while the brown mans turn
came at last.
Hands upr ordered the masked man.
'"They are up" protested the brown
man.
"Way upr' commanded the other.
The brown man stretched himself
on tiptoe. and the masked man held a
revolver to his ear while with the 9TH
er hand he deftly went over the cloth
ing of the irate passenger. When he
concluded he had collected In his peck
cts eight gold watches.
Immediately wrath broke upon the
brown mans head. The seven travel
ing companions told him in language
more or less carefully chosen what
they thought of him. The bankers
told what would become of him when
he reached the next station, and the
bankers wives said they had known
from the beginning that he was des-
perate character.
Meantime the masked man was maxi
ing slow backward retreat for the
door. He still held the two revolvers
leveled at the heads of the twice in
jured passengers and was quite deaf
to their appeals for the return of their
property.
The brown man was explaining vol
ubly that he was detective and that
Instead of the masked man removing
the stolen watches from his pockets
they had come from the pockets of
the masked man, who had skillfully
used ledgermain to plant the guilt on
the innocent passenger. None of the
other passengers believed him. and so
they fell to talking and protesting I'M
til the slam of the door brought them
to realization that the masked man
was going. and so was their property.
With belated valor, the bankers
sprang to the platform to witness the
form OF the bandit vanish in the shad-
ows of the plain. They even heard his
hooking laugh as he vanished. but they
did not care They were too engrossed
in another amazing fact
Their coach stood solitary In the
midst of the plain, The remainder of
the train had gone on and left it be-
hind. Afterward they knew that the
masked man had uncoupled the car
just before he entered
When the conductor discovered the
loss of his Pullman coach the train was
backed down fifteen miles and took it
on, but there was pandemomium let
loose for the conductor to quiet. Sew
eral astonishing facts came to light
then and there
First, the brown man really was a
detective. and great detective too.
Then, the masked man really was u
highwayman who had been on the
train and had posed as a detective In
order to complete his Interrupted job
OF looting the parlor car The con-
ductor required several days Of hard
work and mastery figuring in order to
make up report that would not place
him entirely in the wrong. and every
individual in the rear coach vowed his
and her intention to bring suit against
the company for the outrage
All this goes to show that sometimes
things really are what they seem to be.