Year: 1873

try home and took a clerkship in
the wholesale house of B &
Co., New York, a firm then known
as one of the wealthiest in the
metropolis. They dealt largely in
fine imported fabrics, such as silks
and laces.


l had been in my position near
ly year when the store was rob-
bed of about five thousand dollars
worth of silks. The robbery was
perpetrated in such an adroit man.
ner that it could not be discovered
how the robber had gained an en-
trance-and even the precise night
of the crime could not be determin-
cd. Experienced detectives were
soon at work on the case; but
some weeks elapsed, and they
seemed to have gained no clue,
when, to the astonishment of all,
a second robbery, as daring and
mysterious as the first, was per-
petrated.


Mr.. -, the senior member of
the firm, resolved secretly to en-
ploy several trusty employees to
take turns at guarding the build
ing night after night, in the hope
of entrapping the burglar, and he
chose three clerks for the purpose
i being one. l was fond of ad-
venture, and being rustic country
youth, l would not have hesitated
to grapple with an ordinary burg
lar. Arms were not so much used
in those days.


So we three clerks began our
vigil, each staying alone in the
great gloomy building one night, in
three. A couple of weeks thus
passed, and nothing unusual hap
pened.


One moonlight, summer night l
was on the watch on the lower
floor, and was just musing that it
was scarcely probable that the burg
lar would be so audacious as to at
tempt third robbery, when l
chanced to look above me, and dis
covered that / was Immediately
under the hoistway, and that for
once the trap-doors of every floor
had imprudently been left open,
and | could see to the very roof
which was amply supplied with
sky-light.


"Ah, Joe Williams ~ / said, ad-
dressing the porter-a stout good
natured fellow-as though he were
present, instead of at home and
fast asleep. "This is q serious
neglect, and might cost you your
situation if known at headquarters;
but as you are a poor man, old
fellow, and not generally remiss, l
will conceal your fault this time,
and caution you about it to-mor-
row."


With the view of closing the
traps, crept softly up the four
broad flights of stairs to begin my
task at the fifth floor. 1t was so
dark on the stairs that l had to
feel my way chiefly, but then !
knew every inch of the building,
and easily made my way to the
roof.


In these days, / should have
stated, there were no steam-eleva-
tors in stores, and goods we hoist
ed or lowered, bale or box at
time, by means of huge predent
rope, to which an iron hook was
attached. This was worked by the
porter, who manipulated another
large rope applied to that mechan-
ical power known as the wheel-and-
axle. Such was our hosting ap-
paratus.


When / reached the fifth floor, l
found that objects were quite dis
tinguishable, owing to the mellow
light which the moon supplied
through the sky-lights. To this
day ! remember the peculiar shud-
der that ran over me as / found
myself up there under the roof,
alone with the great bales and boxes,
from whose shadows it was natural
toIimagine the hideous faces of burg
lars leering at me.


Awed by the silence, / stood a
at the head of the stair
way, and it just now occurred to
me that the mysterious robber
might have got in through the sky
lights. At the same moment l was
startled by seeing, in the dim light,
the figure Of man moving among
the boxes and bales, so noiselessly