Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1916-05-12

do" He unlocked his door And
that's no lie,' he added to himself as
he locked the door behind him.
Hemenway pulled down the shades
unscrewed the tops of the boxes he
had ordered, arranged the excelsior
within. opened the trunk, and tooK
out the trays.
He removed from the bottom of the
trunk suit case. small. new lam
eye electric flashers, a suit of dun
garees, jumper and overalls. pair OF
rubber sandals, clothesline, and
twenty-three feet of rope ladder.
He took off his coat, vest, trousers,
shirt, put on the dungarees. and slip
ped the sandals over his rubber heel.
ed shoes.
He filled his lantern, moved table
in corner of the room, turned up tho
rug underneath, put out the gas, ana
sat motionless in his chair for ten
minutes.
At the end of that time he lighted
a flasher, took nail puller from the
suit case, and removed the nails in
part of the exposed flooring. 1t was
evident he had been over the ground
before, as the nails yielded with hard
ly an effort.
pretty work." said Hemenway to
himself as he removed the boards and
disclosed a hole about three feet
square 81 couldn't even tell myself
where | had sawed those boards and
pieced them together again. This old
fogy bank won't know what struck 1t
when | get through. They don't even
keep a Waterman here. He's lucky
fellow, too, if he only knew it, who
ever he is. But to work, to work"
4 Hemenway lowered himself into the
hole, his feet striking solid bottom at
about four feet. Grabbing his flasher,
he peered around. He was in space
about twelve feet square.
He was in fact in the walled up
space directly over the banks vault,
and the solid bottom he was standing
on was the top of the vault itself.
By nice calculation Hemenway had
made the hole in the flooring over one
corner of the vault. STOPPING to avoid
the beams overhead, he made his way
to the front of the vault where he
found, Just where he had left them on
his last previous visit there, two one
gallon demijohns and two tall narrow
glass Tipped pitchers.
These were placed within a circle
that Hemenway had described with
some care about two feet in diameter.
This circle showed flashy and irregu-
lar edges, as though some acid had
eaten into the steel of the vault.
"Ha," exclaimed Hemenway under
mis- breath. Everybody on the mark,
all set and ready for the pistol. Well,
here goes, and may the best man
win"
He uncorked the two demijohns,
filled one pitcher from one of them
and the second pitcher from the other.
Into the jagged groove of the circle
he poured from the first pitcher until
he had completed the circumference
Then taking the second pitcher he be-
gan, with extreme care, to pour the
contents in the same groove.
The effect was strange and wonder
full. When the two liquids met there
was a bubbling like peroxid on raw
flesh. The steel began to soften, and
when the bubbling ceased, as it did
after a time when the mixture lost its
potency, there remained kind of wa
terry mud.
This Hemenway removed with a
stiff brush and then repeated the pro-
cess of pouring one liquid on the
other. At the end of an hour he was
gfatified to hear a splashing on the
floor of the vault from the point
where the liquid had eaten through.
Ten minutes later the section of
steel within the circle fell to the floor
of the vault landing with a sharp
crash.
As luck would have 1t street car
passed with whirl the instant the
heavy steel fell, deadening the sound.
The impact however, Jared the build
ing.
Hemenway shut off his light, poked
| his head through the hole above and
listened. There wasn't football out
side, there wasn't sound within.
Hemenway stood there without NOV.
ing for a full twenty minutes Then
rapidly, but silently, he went to work
completing his job.
Everything had been carefully
thought out in advance. A bucket of
water and a stiff paint brush lay with
| in reach of the office floor.
Dipping the brush in the water he
scrubbed the sides of the steel circle
until he thought there was no danger
of contact with his hands.
That's hot stuff" he soliloquized.
1--WE never tried it on my mitts and
/ l don't guess l want to-"
He LIGHTED his lantern, fastened the
rope ladder in hooks he had screwed
in the beam over the circle and de-
! seconded into the vault. Placing his
lantern on the floor, he brought down
/ the SUIT case which contained various
implements and chemicals, and began
work on the doors of the compart-
.