an's love of money made him as sharp as
a briar when money was at stake; and I was resolved to have no
confederates to share the reward and afterward to keep me in fear of
exposure, I wrote a letter, and using the first name that came into my
head, addressed it to "Dave Kittymunks, General Delivery, Chicago." I
don't know where I picked up the name, and it makes no difference. I
ran up to Milwaukee, dropped the letter in a mail box and was back
here before any one knew that I was out of town. I disguised myself
with black whiskers, went to the post-office and called for the
letter, and took care that the delivery clerk should notice me. Colton
supposed that none but members of his family knew of the safe at home,
and why a robber should know must be made clear; so, wearing the same
disguise, I called at the house one day and told the servant in charge
that I had been sent to search for sewer-gas. I showed an order. A
shrewd colored man had been discharged on account of some
irregularities into which I had entrapped him, and an ignorant fellow
that had agreed to work for less had just been put in his place. One
evening when our family visited the Witherspoons I perfected my
arrangements. I sawed the iron bars at the window and placed the black
coat, with the Kittymunks letter in the pocket, as if the sash had
failed and caught it. It was necessary that the coat should be found,
and it was hardly natural that it should be found lying in the yard,
it must appear that in his haste to get away the robber was compelled
to leave his coat, and this could not be done unless he was forced to
get out of it, leaving the police to suspect that he had done so with
a struggle. I had torn one sleeve nearly off. But the mere falling of
the sash on the tail of the coat would not do, it would pull out too
easily. Then I thought of the pipe. I arranged the safe so that with a
chisel I could open it easily--it was an old and insecure thing,
anyway--and then placed a ladder on the ground under the window. Here
there is a paved walk, so there was no necessity to make tracks. Now,
there was but one thing more, and that was a noise to sound like the
falling of the sash, and which was to wake the old man so that he
might jump up almost in time to catch the robber. I had almost
forgotten this, and now it puzzled me. The vault-room, a narrow
apartment, is between the old man's room and mine, and I could have
left the window up, propped with a stick