THIEF-CATCHING BY WIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5794, 12 June 1880, Page 7

THIEF-CATCHING BY WIRE.

The following is an occurrence which took place some time ago in Canada. I was working at the time in the city office. The line extended a couple of hundred miles from Montreal to Caradel. About midway was a large town, Binville; tho other offices were at country villages. The operator at Binvdle was a young man named Charlton, who had been some years in the States, and was a very expert operator, and a clever fellow at anything. He was not the actual agent of our company. The agent was a respectable lunatic named Chiggle, who was also postmaster. He knew little or nothing of his business, but entrusted it all to Charlton, wbo did pretty much as he likel. So Charlton was in fact postmaster and operator. Perhaps you don't understand the workings of the post-office. A few words will explain all that is necetsary ycu Bhould know to understand my story. When tbey despatch a mail from an office tbey send with it a letter bill. On that bill is entered the amount of postage duo i n letters forwarded to the office to which the mail is sent, and th« amount of postage in money or by stamp on letters mailed at the despatching office. On the right hand of this- bill are entered the number and addresses of all registered letters and parcels forwarded by that mail. Wheu a letter is registered its address and number are entered in a book and on the letter bill. The receiving postmaster enters it en his book and initials the letter bill as an acknowledgment. Tnere was an agency at the Caradel Bank at Binville, and every week, sometim-s twice a week, the head offic-3 remitted packages of its own notes to Binville to be put in circulation there These packages contained from §4,000 to §6,000, and were se.it by mail registered You will see that if, through the omission of the mailinu-clerk, such a parcel was not eutere 1 on the letterbill, the receiving clerk could pocket the parcel aud say he never received it. There would be nothing on the bill to show that such a parcel was forwarded. On Sunday morning, in April, while C.larlton was sorting the mail from Caradel by the flickering gaslight, he came across a large packet from tbe Caradel Bank He threw it aside, as usual, till he had completed tbe task of sorting the mail. When he cime to compare the registered letters with the bill he found seven letters in the pircel, only six eatered. The clerk at Caradel hid omitted to enter the bank pircel Charlton sat down and thought it ovtr. It was a big temptation— 5G.01J0. It was Sunday aud no offic< s were open. Chiggle neicr lookel a: the bills, tbe postmaster at Caradel would never suspect anything wrong, the agency at B nville would wait ti l Tuesday, expecting their parcel, tie had two days' start. Ue sat down an honest maa aud rose up a robber. It was a terrible temptation to go through, and I think that many a stronger fellow than Charlton would have fallen. He put the parcel into his satchel, wilt home to breakfast, came b ick and attended to his office duties. At noon tbe office cloted aud his work was over. He broke up the parcel, stowed the notes away about him, changed his dress and hired a horse to g-> to a French village some dozen miles from Binville. It was a wet Sunday, the early spring roa Is were deep with a sticky mud, the wheels sank to the axles and slipped into ihe cavernous ruts. Arriving at this village, he left hia horse aod walked three miles to another hamler, where hs engaged a wrinkled old habitant, a furry Miorse an 1 a springless cart to tbe representation that he was a telegraph repairer sent out to fix some damage iiooe to the hne. On be jolted until he reached the village of liena, about twenty-five miles from Binville. He left his venerable charioteer at a tavern, and walked boldly over to the telegraph office, wx. ich was in a p-ivate bou-e. It was presided over by a fat girl in a hat and red shawl. Her instru menta about matched her. They were shaky, old-fa-hioned, out of all adjustment, apparently compounded out of a threshingmill and a wooden clock. Tho weather was abominable. The instruments worked accordingly, sometimes getting off a hundred fine dots utterly invisible to the naked eye, and concluding with a stubborn dash six feet long. The operator was almost crying over it, aud no wonder. But Charlton's practised ear caught two words, " robber escaped." His breath came quick for a minute, the room swam before him aud he almost fell. In another second his sdf-possession came back, and lie asked the mixed operator if the line was workiug now. The girl turned round and a-ked his name. John Bell, a repairer. He was shutdown to investigate the working of the offices and see after the line generally. The poor girl was overjoyed to see the providential Bell. The line was working wretchedly, the weather was bad, tbeiustrnment old, and she had an important message to take. It was addressed to the chief constable, and she could not make out a word. Would Mr. Be'l help her? Of course he would. So he cut off the register and working on the feeble, rickety old rely the following message tic• ed faintly off:—"Benville, 10th. —To the Chief Constable, Keua : The operator here, one Charlton, has stolen parcel bank notes, 6,000d015. Kobber escaped. Probably passing your way. Bills on Caradel Bank. Arrest him. Officers on his track. About an hour behind him. Samuel Chiggle." If you think, however, that Charlton copied out this message you are mistaken. He listened to it, and then interrupting the sender, asked him to repeat it slowly, as the lines worked very badly. The operator swore and recommenced. Charlton wrote out this :—"Binville, Apiil 10.—To Chief Constable, ICena : Post-office robbed of 6,000d015. Caradsl bank bills. Kobber escaped up your way. One thousand dollars reward. He will try to pass himself off as a detective, in pursuit of Mr. Charlton, and has forged a warrant. Seiza him. Samuel Chiggle." This message was sent to the chief constable, a fat little Canadian, principally clad in a pair of beef boots and a fur cap. One thousand dollars 1 He would be a millionaire— a thousandaire, rither. Local prints would narrate his sagacity and bravery, and his grand-children would talk of him as the man who, Bingle-handed, captured the desperate robber of Caradel Bank. But there was no time to lose, 'i he valiant chief constable and six myrmidons hid themselves in the adjoining room, having first cinctured themselves elaborately for the I fight. Charlton asked the next office' when the detective had paseed, and saw that he had a clear half hour before him. He went to the tavern, ordered his patriarchal charioteer to sup and be ready to leave in an hour, ordered his own sapper, left his Batohel conspicuously on the table, went to the office and telegraphed that the robber was arrested, aud tbat they need not b® on the watch, and then took to tho fields. He went down toward Binville, and at the turn in the road he met a cart reeling and rocking furiously through the swashing mud. A stout man was lasbing the horse furiously with the reins and swearing lustily at the road inspector. Charlton crouched under the fence until he passed and then struck the river. Ho found an c.d wrinkled habitant who came grumbling and shivering to the door, shading his fluttering candle with his dirty fingers. Charlton hired this man aud bis two bead-eyed, blackhaired boys to row him acrcss the river. It was a case of life and death, h-? said. I he river was high and the ice running. The course of the stream was choked by huge, grinding sheets of ice. Occasionally crooked channels of water showi d between tlies-, smoking in the chill night air under the light of the moon. They pushed off in a crazy wooden canoe, and with bold hearts ventured into the floating ice.- Sometimes it was fair paddling through the channels, every minute becoming narrower as the ice-fields came together. Then they had to leap out and drag the canoe over a cake of ice, straining wearily at the gunwale. Plashing into clear water, then one leg in the canoe, the other in fl mating puddle, impelling it onward. After four hours' hard work they reached the opposite shore, five miles down the stream. Half-au-hour afterward Charlton was clattering and plashing over the roads in a French cart bound for the frontier. He dodged along unfrequented roads, and at 2 o'clock ou Tuesday morning was across the liues in the land of freedom—to him. But to go back again to our heroic detective, who was swearing along the road to Kena. He arrived there and drive direct to the offio*. He leaped from his seat and dashing up the steps, panted, "lamadetective." "Hurrah! shouted the vigilant rustic chief, bursting from his ambush and followed by his myrmidons, flioging himself upon his city confrere. The warriers bore triumphantly down upon the officer. _ "Hurrah! the thousand dollars is to us—is to us !" In vain his assertions, his protestations —in vain the warrant. They were prepared for that. The uufortunate man was bound hand and foot, placed in a cart aud, escorted by the ab'e-bodied population of Kena, once started for Binville. It was 2 o'clock in the morning when they arrived there. T"® news had proceeded them, and tbe little city was all awake to see the triumphant entrance of the daring robber. On wound the mournful processsion, the village chief, intoxicated with joy, dancing front ot tne cart, his faithful myrmidons encircling it, like Indian bearers around a palanquin. J.he captive bad howled : and - kicked himßelf

hoarse, and was now ; lying exhausted in the cart, occasionally giving an'apathetiu wriggle or a despairing bleat. They haughtily waved back the throng and led him to the gaol. The grey-haired old janitor came wheezing forth with hia keys clanking. " Let mo get at him I" howled the fiery Uhiggle bursting through the crowd. " Let me strangle him 1" In furtherance of the charitable iu tention Mr. Chiggle seized the prisoner by the throat. Then with an unpronounceable shriek, a perfect hash of a word, he stove in the salutatory country constable's hat. " Great heavens," ho cried, "it is the detective !" Tableau. —Montreal Gazette.