A Story about Burglars.

Evening Star, Issue 7361, 5 November 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

A Story about Burglars.

[' New York Sun.']

In the fall of 1886 I was employed asa clerk in a general store at a cross-roads in Southern Indiana. The store, a church, and a blacksmith's shop, with two residencep, made up the buildings, and the families of the merchant and the blacksmith were the only residents. The country about was thickly settled up, however, and trade was always good. Before the merchant engaged ine he announced that I would have to sleep in the store of nights, and that unless I had pluck enough to defend the place against marauders he did not want me at any pric?. He showed me a shot-gun, a revolver, and a spring-gun, which were used, or on hand to be used, to defend the place, and the windows were protected with stout blinds and the doors by double locks. The close of the war had drifted a bad population into Indiana. The highways were full of tramps, and there were hundreds of men win had determined to make a living by some other means than labor. Several attempts had been made to rob the store, and it had come to that pass that no clerk wanted to sleep there alone. The merchant seemed satisGed with the answers I gave him, and on a certain Monday morning I went to work. That same night a store about four miles away was broken into and robbed, and the clerk seriously wounded. Two nights later three horses were stolen in our neighborhood. At the end of the week a farmer who was on his way home from our store was robbed on the highway. If I had not been a light sleeper from habit, these occurrences would have tended to prevent too lengthy dreams as I lay in my little bedroom at the front of the second story. The revolver was always placed under my pillow, and the shot gun stood within reach. The spring gun was set about midway of the lower floor. It was a double-barrelled shot gun, each barrel containing a big charge of buckshot, and the man who lucked the string and discharged the weapon would never know what hurt him.

It did not seem possible that anyone could break into the store without arousing me. There was no door to my room, and after the people in the neighborhood had gone to bed I could hear the slightest noise in the store. I had looked the place over for a weak spot, and had failed to find it, but my own confidence came near proving my destruction. I should have told you, in describing the store, that just over the spot wheie we set the spring-gun was an opening through which we hoisted and lowered such goods i s were stored for a time on the second floor. When not in use this opening was covered by a trapdoor. Towards evening on the tenth day of my clerkships, I hoisted up a lot of pails and tubs, and had just finished when trade became so brisk that I was called to wait upon customers. Later on I saw that I had left|the trap-door open, and I said to myself that I would let it go until I went to bed. The store had the only burglar-proof safe for miles around, aud it was customary for the farmer who had a hundred dollars or so to leave it with us. He received an envelope in which to enclose it, and he could take out and put in as he liked. On this evening four or live fanners came in to deposit, and, as I afterwards figured up, we had about 1,500d0l in the safe.

There were two strange faces in the crowd that evening. One belonged to a roughly-dressed, evil-eyed man, who announced himself as a drover, and the other to a professional tramp. I gave the latter a piece of tobacco and some crackers aud cheese, and he soon went away, and we were so busy up to nine o'clock that I did not give t,he drover much attention. When we came to shut up the store, he had gone from my mind altogether. We counted up the cash, made some charges in the daybook, and it was about ten o'clock when the merchant left. I was tired out, and I took a candle and made the circuit of the store, set the spring-gun, and went to bed. I had to pass within six feet of the trap-door as I went to my room, but I did not see it. It was rather a chilly night in October, and we had no fires yet, and as I got under the blankets the warmth was so grateful that I soon fell asleep. It was the first night I had gone to bed without thinking of robbers and wondering how I should act in case they came in. I did not know when I fell asleep. I suddenly found myself half upright in bed, and there was an echo in the store, as if the fall of something had aroused mo. It was one o'clock, and I had been asleep almost three hours. Leaning on my elbow, I strained my ears to catch the slightest sound, and after a minute I heard a movement down-staira. While I could not say what it was, a sort of instinct told me that it was made by some human being. Everything on the street was as sileut as the grave. My window curtain was up, and I could see that the sky had thickened up and was very black. I did not wait for noise to be repeated. I was just as sure that someone was in the store as if I had already seen him, and I crept softly out of bed, drew on my trousers, and moved out into the big room, having the revolver in my hand. There was no door at the head of the stairs, I intended to go there and listen down the stairway. As I was moving across the room, which was then pretty clear of goods as far as the trap-door, I suddenly recollected this opening, and changed my course to reach it. It was terribly dark in the room, and one unfamiliar with the place would not have dared to move a foot. Half-way to the trap I got down on my hands and knees, and, as I reached the opening, I settled down on my Btomach. There was a dim light down stairs. That settled the fact that someone was in the store. After a minute I heard whispers, then the movement of feet, then a certain sound which located the intruders to a foot. They were at the safe in the front of the store. I drew myself forward and looked down the opening. I could see a lighted candle and two or three dark figures at the safe, and I could hear the combination being worked. My first thought was to drop my hand down and open fire in their direction, but I remembered that we had so many articles hanging up that no bullet had a chance of reaching to the safe. I was wondering what to do when I heard one of the men whisper—- " It's all nonsense. We might work here a week and not hit it."

"But I told you to bring the tools, and you wouldn't," protested another. " Oh, dry up!" put in a third voice: "What we want to do is to go up and bring that counter-hopper down and make him open the box." "I'll give the cussed thing a few more trials," said the first man, and I heard him working away again. My eyes could not have told me the number of robbers, but my ears had. There were three of them, and they were, no doubt, desperate and determined men. They spoke of bringing me down to open ; the safe as if no resistance was anticipated or taken into account. Indeed, they might well reason that they now had me at their mercy. The rain was now falling ; the night was very dark, and a pißtol-shot in the store could not have been heard in either of the dwellings. If they had reflected that I might be armed, they would have offset it with the fact that I was a boy of eighteen with a girl's face and probably a girl's nerve. I don't deny that I was a bit rattled, and that my lip would quiver in spite of me; but I was at the same time fully determined to protect the store if it cost me my life. How to get at the fellows was what bothered me, but that trouble was soon solved.

"There," whispered, the man at the combination, as he let go of it, " I won't fool here another minute. That kid knows the combination, and we can make him work it. Come on."

They were coming upstairs. The best place for me would be at the head of the stairway. The stairs had a half turn iu them, and I could fire upon the first man who came within range. I heard the men coming back to the stairway, and my nerve gave way. It wasn't from cowardice; but the knowledge that I was to kill a human being quite upset me. I decided to retreat to my room, and, if they persisted in coming that far, I would shoot. The trio had rubbers on their feet, but they came upstairs without trying very hard to prevent making a noise. Tj*e one who came first had'the candle, and as he' got to the head of the stairs I saw a knife in his other hand. They'made no delay in approaching my room, and Vith a great effort I braced my

self for what I saw must happen. They could not see me until within three or four feet of the door, and their first intimation that I was out of bed was when they heard me cil) out:

" Stop, or I'll shoot." I had them covered with the weapon, and for fifteen seconds there was dead silence. Then they got a plan. The man with the candle dashed it on to the floor, and I suppose they meant to rush in on me in the dark, but I checkmated it by opening fire. They then either meant to retreat downstairs or toward the rear of the floor, for I saw the three together moving off, and fired at their dim figures. Three seconds later there was a great shout of horror, followed by the tremendous report of the doublebarrelled spring-gun, and then there was absolute silence. I think I stood in the door, shaking like a leaf, for fully three minutes before the silence was broken by a groan. Then it came to me that the robbers had fallen through the open door upon the cord le ;ding to the gun. I struck a match, lighted my own candle, and, going to the opening, saw three bodies lying below. Running back to the bedroom to recharge my revolvor, I then went down-stairs to investigate. It was as I suspected. The three had pitched down together. The top of one's head had been blown off by the shot; a second had a hole in his chest as big as your fist; while the third, who was responsible for the groans, was severely wounded in both legs. It was three months before he could be put on trial, and he then got four years in prison. The whole thing was a put-up job. The " drover " was a Chicago burglar called "Clawhammer Dick," and he had hidden 1 imself in the store that night, and then let his pals in by the back door. They had a horse and waggon in the rear of the building, and the plan was to rob the store of goods as well as to get the money in the safe. A bit of carelessness on my part not only saved the store and probably my life, bat wiped out a very desperate gang.