The Stories of the Three Burglars

by Frank Richard Stockton

his liberation tokiss Alice." Aunt Martha looked at me with wide-open eyes, and then herbrows contracted.

  "He did, did he?" said she. "And that is the kind of a man he is. Verygood. Let him go to jail with the others. I don't believe one word abouthis young wife. If kissing respectable young women is the way he studiesRealism the quicker he goes to jail the better," and with that shewalked into the house.

  When the men had been placed in the two vehicles in which the police hadcome, the Chief and I made an examination of the premises, and we foundthat the house had been entered by a kitchen window, in exactly themanner which the tall burglar had described. Outside of this window,close to the wall, we found a leathern bag, containing what the Chiefdeclared to be an excellent assortment of burglars' tools. The officersand their prisoners now drove away, and we were left to a long morningnap, if we were so fortunate as to get it, and a late breakfast.

  In the course of the trial of the three men who had entered my housesome interesting points in regard to them were brought out. Severaldetectives and policemen from New York were present, and their testimonyproved that my three burglars were men of eminence in their profession,and that which most puzzled the metropolitan detectives was to discoverwhy these men should have been willing to devote their high talents tothe comparatively insignificant business of breaking into a suburbandwelling.

  The tall man occupied a position of peculiar eminence in criminalcircles. He was what might be called a criminal manager. He would takecontracts for the successful execution of certain crimes,--bankrobberies, for instance,--and while seldom taking part in the actualwork of a burglary or similar operation, he would plan all the detailsof the affair, and select and direct his agents with great skill andjudgment. He had never been arrested before, and the detectives weredelighted, believing they would now have an opportunity of tracing tohim a series of very important criminal operations that had taken placein New York and some other large cities. He was known as Lewis Mandit,and this was believed to be his real name.

  The stout man was a first-class professional burglar and nothing more,and was in the employ of Mandit. The young man was a decidedly uncommonpersonage. He was of a good family, had been educated at one of ourprincipal colleges, had travelled, and was in every way qualified tomake a figure in society. He had been a newspaper man, and a writer forleading periodicals, and had shown considerable literary ability; but alife of honest industry did not suit his tastes, and he had now adoptedknavery as a regular profession.

  This man, who was known among his present associates as Sparky, stillshowed himself occasionally in newspaper offices, and was generallysupposed to be a correspondent for a Western journal; but his realbusiness position was that of Mandit's head man.

  Sparky was an expert in many branches of crime. He was an excellentforger, a skilful lock-picker, an ingenious planner of shady projects,and had given a great deal of earnest study to the subject of theloopholes of the law. He had a high reputation in criminal circles forhis ability in getting his fellow-rascals out of jail. There was reasonto believe that in the past year no less than nine men, some condemnedto terms of imprisonment, and some held for trial, had escaped by meansof assistance given them by Sparky.

  His methods of giving help to jail-birds were various. Sometimes libertywas conferred through the agency of saws and ropes, at other timesthrough that of a habeas corpus and an incontestible alibi. His meanswere adapted to the circumstances of the case, and it was believed thatif Sparky could be induced to take up the case of a captured rogue, theman had better chance of finding himself free than the law had ofkeeping him behind bars, especially if his case were treated before ithad passed into its more chronic stages.

  Sparky's success was greatly due to his extremely specious manner, andhis power of playing the part that the occasion demanded. In thisparticular he was even the superior of Mandit, who was an adept in thisline. These two men found no difficulty in securing the services ofproficient burglars, safe-robbers, and the like; for, in addition to thehigh rewards paid these men, they were in a manner insured againstpermanent imprisonment in case of misfortune. It was always arrangedthat, if any of their enterprises came to grief, and if either Mandit orSparky should happen to be arrested, the working miscreants shouldsubstantiate any story their superiors might choose to tell ofthemselves, and, if necessary, to take upon themselves the wholeresponsibility of the crime. In this case their speedy release was to belooked upon as assured.

  A great deal of evidence in regard to the character and practices ofthese two men came from the stout burglar, commonly known as BarneyFitch. When he found that nothing was to be expected from his twoastute employers, and that they were in as bad a place as himself, hepromptly turned State's evidence, and told all that he knew about them.

  It was through the testimony of this man that the motive for theattempted robbery of my house was found out. It had no connectionwhatever with the other burglaries of our neighbourhood, those,probably, having been committed by low-class thieves, who had not brokeninto my house simply because my doors and windows had been so wellsecured; nor had our boy, George William, any share whatever in theprotection of the household.

  The burglary was undertaken solely for the purpose of getting possessionof some important law papers, which were to be used in a case in which Iwas concerned, which soon would be tried. If these papers could besecured by the opposite party, the side on which I was engaged wouldhave no case at all, and a suit involving a great deal of property mustdrop. With this end in view the unscrupulous defendants in the case hademployed Mandit to procure the papers; and that astute criminal managerhad not only arranged all the details of the affair, but had gonehimself to the scene of action in order to see that there should be nomistake in carrying out the details of this most important piece ofbusiness.

  The premises had been thoroughly reconnoitred by Sparky, who, a few daysbefore the time fixed for the burglary, had visited my house in thecapacity of an agent of a telescopic bookcase, which could be extendedas new volumes were required, therefore need never exhibit emptyshelves. The young man had been included in the party on account of hisfamiliarity with legal documents, it being, of course, of paramountimportance that the right papers should be secured. His ingenuity wasalso to be used to cover up, if possible, all evidence that the househad been entered at all, it being desirable to make it appear to thecourt that I had never had these documents in my possession, and thatthey never existed.

  Had it not been for a very natural desire for refreshment thatinterfered with their admirably laid plans, it is probable that themechanical skill of Mandit would have been equal to the noiselessstraightening of the bent bolt, and the obliteration of the scratchesand dents made by the attempts upon other shutters, and that Sparky,after relocking all open desks or cabinets, and after the exit of theothers, would have closed and fastened the kitchen shutters, and wouldthen have left the house by means of an open window in the upper halland the roof of a piazza.

  Thus it was that these three men, so eminent in their different spheresof earnest endeavour, came to visit my comparatively humble abode; andthus it was that they not only came to that abode, but to the deepestgrief. They were "wanted" in so many quarters, and on so many charges,that before they had finished serving out their various sentences theirability to wickedly avail themselves of the property of others wouldhave suffered greatly from disuse, and the period of life left them forthe further exercise of those abilities would be inconveniently limited.

  I was assured by a prominent detective that it had been a long timesince two such dangerous criminals as Mandit and Sparky had fallen intothe hands of the law. These men, by means of very competent outsideassistance, made a stout fight for acquittal on some of the chargesbrought against them; but when they found that further effort of thiskind would be unavailing, and that they would be sentenced to long termsof imprisonment, they threw off their masks of outraged probity andstood out in their true characters of violent and brutal ruffians.Barne
y Fitch, the cracksman, was a senior warden compared to them.

  It was a long time before my Aunt Martha recovered from herdisappointment in regard to the youngest burglar.

  "Of course I was mistaken," she said. "That sort of thing will happen;but I really had good grounds for believing him to be a truthful person,so I am not ashamed for having taken him for what he said he was. I havenow no doubt before he fell in his wicked ways that he was a very goodwriter, and might have become a novelist or a magazine author; but hiscase is a very sad proof that the study of Realism may be carried toofar," and she heaved a sigh.

  THE END.