| Show BUT HE DID IT innocently AND DID IT artistically AS WELL the scheme by which a sate expert W pooled and ased br n trio of No Crack imea to get nt their plunder to the man whose bears the inscription safe expert and whose attle shop not tar from the great dry goods district contains a full assortment of implements for tho forcible opening of cefes the writer said would you bo well qualified to play the burglar yes eald the attle keen eyed man running his fingers through his scant hair 1 I once did play burglar in fact I 1 played the star role in a safe cracking enterprise I 1 was the innocent means by which a wholesale house was robbed of several thousand dollars which had been taken in loo late in the day to bo banked 1 I was in business then in another city I 1 was sitting smoking at my shop door about 8 one evening when a messenger boy came with a note on the letter paper of a well known house asking me to come at once with my tools to the office of the firm the office was lighted up and a portly prosperous looking man sat at a roll top desk while two clerks perched on stools working at some books 1 I am mr said the portly one giving the name of the head of the firm something has gone wrong with the sate and I 1 want you to open it the combinations Is G 27 45 but something must have broken inside tor it wont open and we have got to get some books out of the sate tonight As I 1 tried the combination which the man had given me be explained that he had locked the sate when he went out to dinner and was unable to open it ewhen he came back it wag one of those alum filled sates and I 1 suspected rust bad done its work inside nothing to do but drill it open said I 1 go ahead said the portly one and dont keep me herc any kinger than you can help t with that be turned to bis desk and I 1 worked away unsuspectingly there was dead silence except when the man at the desk spoke to one or the other of the clerks about some account and the tread of the policeman on that beat could bo heard as be passed the office 1 I did not reallie until afterward hat I 1 was working view of the passing policeman poll ceman for alie safe was behind the bookkeepers desk but the shades up and the man at the roll top desk and the bookkeepers could be plainly seen from the street 1 I got out my bits adjusted the brace and soon steel was biting steel but the sound of the ratchet was drowned by the click of the typewriter for the portly party began dictating to one of the clerks as soon as I 1 began drilling the safe when I 1 thought it all over afterward it occurred to me that this to cover the sound of my operations in halt an hour I 1 had aole in the front of the safe and a little manipulation got the tumblers into place and the door swung open here you are sir said I 1 and the portly man came around to the safe very neatly done he said aoud make a good burglar but the sound of the ratchet would bring the cops said I 1 true remarked alie man and drawing out a roll of bills he handed me 20 Is that right be asked quite right I 1 replied shall I 1 come in the morning to fix the sate no said be 1 I will have the mak ers of the sate attend to it As I 1 gathered up my tools tho portly man directed one of the clerks to get out the books that wera needed and he went back to tho desk 1 I trundled back to my shop meeting tho policeman at the corner and I 1 was standing chatting with him the trio came out of the office tou can come down an hour later than visual in the morning said the portly man as he climbed into a hansom that had rolled up to the office and shouting the ame ot a well known club to the driver he pulled the doors to and was driven away before noon the next day the policeman whom I 1 had talked with and i H detective came into my shop that was u neat job you did last night eald the policeman what I 1 asked the nature of the work 1 had done not yet dawning on me tho looting of B safe said tho policeman come along the portly person who employed me to open the sate was a well known burglar who had made up to impersonate the head of tho firm and the two clerks were confederates one of bad got ft with the firm to get the lay of the land they had taken possession of the office after it was closed for atie day and not daring to blow open the safe because that would havo made the police swoop down on them they had boldly sent for me to do the job neatly possessed themselves of nearly that was in the bate and across the canadian border before the robbery was discovered when tho office was opened the nest day 1 I told my story to the magistrate and was released oa bonds to appear as n witness when the trio were caught the papers called me the innocent burglar the name stuck to me and hurt my business and the police wern rather attentive to me eo I 1 came hern bonie years aco new york times |
