Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1870 — THE ROBBER’S LAMP. [ARTICLE]

THE ROBBER’S LAMP.

Got to go over on foot!” exclaimed the contractor. “ Not a chance of anything else,” replied the agent. “ But then it’s only five miles, and you’ll have better quarters there than hero, in thiß vile shanty. Tho money will be safer, too—let alone that the men won’t go to work again, unless theyr’e paid in the morning.” “’ls the road safo ? I don’t like the Idea of lugging bo much money. I could do fend myself or run ; but fifteen hundred dollars in small bills is a big package to run with.” “ Send your valise over in advance.” “Whom by?" “ My man." “Is he trustworthy?” “Honest as the day; and he needn’t know there’s anything in it but dirty linen. He can start now; and. you can wait till after supper, if you will." And, so saying, the agent of the railroad company steoped to the door of the shanty and shouted for Patrick; and, shortly, that individual came—as bright, lively, honest-looking a son of the Green Isle as ever helped build ’a Western railroad. “Patrick!" “Yis, yer honor." “Take this gentleman’s valiso over to the village, and leave it with the superintendent. Tell qim the owner’ll bo after it this ovening." “ An’ is that all, yer honor ?” - “ That’s all—only be quick about it, add you’ll earn an extra dollar." “I’m jtst the bye for that onyhow. Sure, it’s a small bit of a valise." > And, so saying, Patrick picked up the object of his contempt, and trudged away, with an utter absenco of curiosity as to the nature of what he was carrying. The temporary station at which the " construction train ’’ had landed the contractor—a gentleman named Perkins—was at the end of tho new Air-line Railroad to ——; and, as the laborers thereon had not been paid over-promptly, they had now for some days been on a strike, abandoning the works, and congregating idly at a hamlet, a few miles distant, thereby compelling their delinquent emE lovers to come to terms. Mr. Perkins ad brought a good share of the “terms” vrith him, for immediate distribution; and, after a plain but hearty supper with the agent, he was about to start on his tramp, when it was discovered that a good-sized Western thunder-storm was just about to burst, and tbe walk was postponed until the sky should clear. In a few minutes more, the rain was coming down in torrents, and kept it up for an hour or so, atr the end of which time the contractor paddled away over the muddy road, congratulating himself that the valise in Patrick’s care was water-proof. " He’s had a rougher time than I will, anyhow; and now, if I ain’t robbed and murdered before I get there, I shall do well enough, in spite of the mud.” And, so muttering to himself, the worthy gentleman splashed forward. Our present business, however, is not with his employer, but with Patrick himself. The parting injunction to make haste had not seemed to make a deep impression on the-careless son- of Erin; and he trudged easily along, with an occasional shrewd glance at the somewhat threatening sky, growling to himself: “Faith, an’ PII bo there before ho will, an’ it don’t rain, an’ inebbo I will av it does. Och, but it’s a wake one to be givin’ a dollar for carryin’ theloiko o’ thU!” A little more than half-way across the open prairie between the railway terminus and the village was a tcderably-dense frove, and it "was after sunset. when atrick plungechinfier its shadows. Nor had he gone far, before, as the gioom.mp-. idly deepened, the premonitory flashes of lightning, and the deep, smothered roars or the thunder, gave token that the storm was upon him. “ No*, ah’ I end ownly git to tho owld log house, it ’ud kapeme ahry. Howly

Moses, what a big flash was that I” And so saying,Patrick broke intoa very respectable trot, which quickly brought him into A little weed-grown clearing. In the centre of this there was a small log house, the deserted homestead of somo discontented squatter who had moved farther westward. It consisted of but two rooms, front and back, and all vestiges of doors or window-shutters had long since disappeared; but it promised some sort Qf imperfect shelter from the rain. Patrick was but just in time, fbr hardly had ho stnmbled over the grassy threshold before the first big drops began"td patter, and these were quickly followed by such penetrating torrents as compelled him to select his standing-place under as good a corner of the leaky roof as he could find. “ Bless my sowl, but this is a wet rain, onyhow! I’d not loike to be found dhrowned wid another mon’s portmanty about me clothes. Whisht, now, Palhrickj me jewel—what’s that?” And, as he spoke, Patrick once more advanced toward the doorway. It was now all but pitoh dark, and he could hear the half muffled voices of men, whose profane utterances seemed to try and direct one another toward the shelter: * “ Here it is, Bob. I wonder if there’s anybody in it.” • “ Not to night there won’t be. Go right in; we’re comki’.” Patrick was no fool, and he had heard something in the tones rather than in the words—though these words were miDglc-d with horrid profanity—which conveyed to his mind thi impression that the newcomers were men with Whom ho did not care to scrape acquaintance; neither did he like to go out into the storm—and So he glided bacx into the little “ lean-to ’ that formed the other part of the house, and curled himself up against tho logs. In a moment more he perceived that three men had taken possession of his late quarters; and he lay as still as a mouse, while they continued a discussion which had evidently been interrupted by the storm: “ He won’t try to get over to-night, I reckon." “Yes, he will; he’s got to?” “But the storm?" “ He’ll wait till that’s over.” “ Maybe he’s started.” “If ho has, he’ll turn back. Wc’rc safe enough to bag. him, an’ it’s a little the best lay tec ever had." “ Pretty good pot, that’s a fact. Ho yon know how he’s got it ?” “In a valise, Jim says.” “ "Well, we can take it as well in that as anything else, as tho man said about his “ But what’ll we do with him /" “ Dead men tell no tales.” “ That’s the safest, I gness; and they’ll lay it to some of tho strikers.” “ Most likely. Have you got the darklantern ready ?” “ Not much oil in it”

11 Let’s fill it, then. I went to get some, and got into the boss’s private office, and I just found one little can hid away in his desk. Not another thing worth bringing away. Here ’tis; let’s fill up, an’ take a look round.” Thus far Patrick had listened with breathless interest, while his mind teemed with horrid visions of robbery and murder. As we have said, he was by no means lacking in sharpness, and the reference to the valise had not been by any means reassuring. “Howly Mother! how did they iver know I was coinin’ over wid the portmanty ? I’d like to know that Begorrab, I’d betther have turned back before I iver come! An’ what’s a dollar to pay for being murdered ?” Patrick’s thoughts were troubling the very soul within him, when he heard what was Raid about the lantern, and it needed no one to tell him that his only safety from discovery was in retreat. There was some little noiso and loud talking in the other room, not to speak of the rain on the roof, and Patrick had no difficulty in escaping unheard. Once clear of tho house, he made a clean run of It for a couple of hundred yards, stumbling over logs, tearing through briers, but sticking faithfully to-the valise. Meantime the three robbers had probably been filling the lamp of their dark lantern ; and just as Patrick reached the edge es the woods, in the cover of whoso darkness he knew he would be safe, he turned and strained his eyes in the direction of the log house. As ho did, so, a faint gleam of light came oat through the chinks and crannies. “ Strikin’ a match,” muttered Patrick. “ Bad luck to that same for sindin’ me out into the wet!—Howly Mother! what’s that!” While Patrick had been speaking, the light had gained somewhat in strength, as if the match was blazing higher ; but, as he uttered his concluding exclamation, there came a sudden, blinding flash, equal to many lightnings, and then a dull and stunning sound, as of some mighty explosion, followed by.the crashing sound of heavy bodies falling among the tree tops, near him, breaking their way through the branches. Patrick waited for no moTe, but found the road as quickly as possible, and made double quick time for tho village, recardless of the rain. When less than half sn hour afterward, the breathless Irishman with his precious burden, dripping with water, opened tho door of the superintendent’s office in the vlllago, he heard that gentleman remark: “ What did you say, Jordan ?’’ ' “ Why,” replied the boss, with an anxious tones " some fool has broke my desk open ana stole a can of nitro glycerine, and I’m afraid mischief will come of it.” “Dlvil ft fear,” interrupted Patrick; “ sorra mischief was done by that same. Ownly we'll have to search the woods wid dogs to foind enough of ’em for a dacent wake, or Ol’m raisntaken." The explanation which followed left little room for doubt, and a subsequent investigation left less; but, as Patrick had sunpised, there was very little occasion for a “ wake.” The contractor got In all right, the men were paid, the road was built, and the moral of my story is: “If you steal nitroglycerine. don’t fill lamps with it if you mean to light thfem yourself”— Appleton’s Journal. Half a dozen pots of flowers from different countries, and having, the soil of the country from which they came, were set before a professional Japanese horticulturist for his examination. Then the pots were removed, and samples of the soil of eachjjnd leaves frqm each, shrub brought in and arranged with the mien- . tion, ot deceiving him. The question was then" asked .him;. “ Which paper of soil cnipe from the pot where this leaf grow,," Ile.iooked closely at ike leaf, and after examining the papers of soil, picked out the right one, vpthout a single mistake.