how i faced death, how my husband was shot, and some narrow escapes of my companions

from the moment when he commits his first crime the professional criminal never knows what it is to enjoy real peace of mind. his crimes hang over him like the sword of damocles, and, unless he reforms, he can never be free from the fear of some day being found out and sent away to prison for a long term.

and arrest is not the only thing he has to fear—he is continually face to face with the danger of serious injury or death. whatever the crime he undertakes, he must run the most desperate risks—he has to stake not only his liberty, but life itself on the narrowest of margins.

the powerful explosive he is using to blow open a safe may go off prematurely, as it did one night when george mason and i were robbing a bank in illinois, and leave the robber half dead.

perhaps an indignant mob may decide to take justice into its own hands by lynching the criminal. this is what happened to one of my comrades in kentucky. they had the noose around his neck and were all ready to string him up when i arrived in the nick of time to save his life.

perhaps he will be caught in the act at one of his crimes and shot down like a dog, as my husband,[pg 119] ned lyons, was in connecticut one night. that was the narrowest escape my husband ever had—i saw it with my own eyes, and, if i live to be a hundred, i shall never forget the agony of it all.

at the time of this thrilling adventure the police wanted us so badly for our share in several famous robberies that ned and i did not dare to undertake any operations in the large cities which usually formed our most profitable fields. so, being in need of ready money, we had decided to take a little trip through some of the smaller towns of new england. the amount of cash to be had from the banks, stores and postoffices in these places was not large, but, on the other hand, it was not hard to get and we thought we ought to be able to spend two or three weeks quite profitably in the nearby towns of connecticut and massachusetts.

as my health that summer was not very good and ned did not want me to take any very active part in the robberies, we invited george mason to go along with us.

from the start we seemed to be ill-fated. ned and george succeeded in getting into a bank in fitchburg, mass., but were frightened away by a watchman before they had time to open the safe. from the postoffice in a little village just outside fitchburg we secured only eight or ten dollars to pay us for our trouble. quite discouraged and desperately in need of money we went on to palmer, mass.

there i scouted around and discovered that the[pg 120] most likely place for us to rob was g. l. hitchcock's drug store, which was also the village postoffice. a storm came up to hide the full moon, and this enabled us to make the attempt that very night. it was not the easiest job in the world, for mr. hitchcock and his family lived directly above the store and the least noise was sure to rouse them.

how we robbed a store

shortly after midnight i took up my position in an alley in the rear of the store to stand guard while ned and george removed a pane of glass from a cellar window. through this opening the men squeezed, and presently the dim reflection of their dark lanterns showed me that they had safely reached the store above.

i had been standing there in the rain for nearly twenty minutes when a low rumble from inside the store made me prick up my ears. just as i was puckering my lips to whistle a shrill warning to my comrades i saw them appear at the back door of the store carrying between them a small iron safe. it was this safe rolling over the floor which i had heard.

the safe was a small affair, but so well made that it had successfully resisted all their efforts to drill it open. finding it was not too heavy to be carried they had decided to take it outside the town, where they could blow it open without fear of arousing the sleeping village.

[pg 121]

we must have made a strange procession as we trudged along through the darkness—the two men partly carrying and partly rolling the safe along, and all of us wading through mud half way to our knees.

at last we reached a meadow far enough removed from any houses for our purpose. george mason filled one of the holes he had drilled with black powder and wrapped the safe with some old sacks to protect the fuse from the wet and also to muffle the noise of the explosion.

ned touched a match to the fuse and we scurried to a safe distance. the charge went off with a dull boom—the shattered door of the safe flew high into the air and landed several yards away.

waiting a few minutes to make sure that no one in the village had been awakened, we hurried back to get our plunder. there were $350 in cash, a diamond ring, some gold pens, and fifteen or twenty dollars' worth of postage stamps. with the few dollars the boys had taken from the till this made a trifle more than four hundred dollars for our night's work—a pitifully small sum compared with what some of our bank robberies brought us, but enough to support us until we could plan some more ambitious undertaking.

just as we were dividing our plunder into three equal shares a freight train whistled in the distance.

"george and i will jump on this train," said my husband, giving me a hurried kiss. "it's safer than[pg 122] for the three of us to stick together. good-bye—and take care of yourself. we'll meet you in south windham, conn., late to-night or early to-morrow."

wet, bedraggled, and so tired that i could have fallen asleep standing up, i groped my way to the railroad station and curled myself up on a bench to snatch what rest i could. just before daybreak a milk train came along. i boarded this and traveled by a roundabout route to south windham.

my husband is shot

i reached there late in the afternoon and went straight to the postoffice. this was always the accepted rendezvous for professional criminals when no other place had been agreed upon. detectives in every city might very profitably spend more of their time watching the postoffice, for wherever the criminal is he makes a point of calling there at least once every twenty-four hours to keep appointments with his friends or in the hope of running across some acquaintance.

ned and george were there waiting for me, and mighty glad they were to see me, for they had heard vague rumors of a woman having been arrested on suspicion that she knew something about the palmer robbery.

the best opportunity the sleepy little town afforded seemed to be a general store run by a man named johnson. i dropped in there late one evening, and, on the pretext of buying a crochet hook,[pg 123] saw the old proprietor locking the day's receipts—quite a respectable bundle of money—in a ramshackle safe which offered about as much security as a cheese box.

we got everything in readiness to break into the store the following night. it was a foolhardy time for such a job, as there was a bright moon—but we were hungry for money, and one more good haul would supply enough to keep us in comfort until we could lay our plans for some robbery really worthy of our skill.

there was really little i could do to help the men, but i could not bear to be left behind. just after midnight i stole out of the railroad station, where i had been waiting ostensibly for the night train to new york, and hid myself in the doorway of a livery stable, where i had a good view of the store we were going to rob.

pretty soon i saw my two comrades come cautiously down the main street from opposite directions. they met underneath a window of the store on the side which was in the dark shadow of a tree.

the window was so high above the ground that my husband had to climb up on george mason's shoulders to reach it. i could hear the gentle rasp of his jimmy as it worked against the fastenings.

at last he raised the sash gently and stepped into the store. then he leaned far out across the sill and stretched his brawny arms down toward his companion.

mason gave a leap, caught hold of ned's wrists,[pg 124] and, with the agility of a circus performer, swung himself up into the window.

all was as silent as the grave. the only sign of life i could see in the peaceful street were two cats enjoying a nocturnal gambol on a nearby piazza roof. i shivered for fear they might start yowling and awaken somebody to spoil our plans.

just at that instant one of the cats upset a flower pot which stood at a window opening on the porch roof. to my horror that pot went rolling down the roof with a tremendous clatter, hung suspended for a second on the eaves, then fell to the stone steps with a crash that woke the echoes.

at once the whole town awoke. in every direction i could hear windows being thrown open, children crying, and sleepy voices asking what the trouble was.

at a window directly over the store where my two friends were a night-capped head appeared and a frightened woman screamed, "help! burglars!" at the top of her lungs.

that completed the havoc which the playful cats and the flower pot had begun. from every house half-dressed men armed with rifles, shotguns, and all sorts of weapons poured into the street.

all this racket had started too suddenly for me to give ned and george any warning. i could only crouch farther back in the shadow of my doorway and trust to providence that the villagers would overlook me in their excitement.

"there goes the burglar now!" some one shouted,[pg 125] and just then i saw my husband dash past my hiding place so close that i could have touched him. he was headed for the open country beyond the railroad tracks and was running faster than i had ever supposed a man of his weight could.

"stop, or i'll shoot!" yelled an old white-whiskered farmer, who stood, rifle in hand, not a dozen yards away.

but ned, if he heard the command, made no move to obey. instead, he only ran all the faster, hunching his head down between his shoulders and zigzagging back and forth across the road as if to make his bulky form a less favorable target.

the old farmer raised his rifle as deliberately as if he had been aiming at a squirrel instead of a fellow man. three shots blazed out in rapid succession.

the first shot went wild. at the second my husband stumbled. at the third he threw up his hands and pitched forward headlong in the road.

"we've got him!" the crowd shouted with what seemed to me fiendish glee, and rushed up to where ned's body lay in a quivering, bloody heap.

i supposed he was dead, but, whether dead or alive, i knew there was nothing i could do to aid him. nervous and trembling at the awful sight i had seen, i slipped out of town unnoticed.

what came of our crimes

i saw nothing of george mason and for months afterward did not know how he had escaped. with[pg 126] better judgment than my husband showed he had remained quietly in the store after the outcry started. he saw the shooting, and, in the confusion which followed, he found little difficulty in getting out of town.

friends of mine in new london aided me to return to the hospital in hartford, where ned had been taken after the shooting. his recovery was slow, for there was a bullet imbedded nine inches deep in his back which the surgeons were unable to remove. as soon as he was able to stand trial he was sentenced to three years in state prison, and, when he had completed this term, he was given three years in massachusetts for the robbery at palmer.

this was the result of our crimes in new england—my husband nearly killed and sentenced to six long years in prison. can you wonder why i have learned the lesson that crime does not pay?

but, to my sorrow, i did not learn the lesson then—no, not for many years after that. with my husband in prison the support of my little ones fell wholly on my shoulders, and i promptly turned to bank robbing as the easiest way i knew of making a living.

my early training under such expert bank robbers as ned lyons, mark shinburn, and harry raymond made me extraordinarily successful in this variety of crime. the cleverest men in the business began to have respect for my judgment and were continually inviting me to take an important part in their risky but very profitable ventures. soon, as[pg 127] i am going to tell you, my reputation for skill in organizing the most daring robberies and carrying them through without detection had spread even beyond the limits of the underworld.

one day, when i was trying to enjoy the novel experience of living honestly for a few weeks, a distinguished looking gentleman called at my home. he saw my look of incredulity when he announced himself as a bank president and promptly produced a heavy engraved card which confirmed the truth of his statement.

instantly i was on my guard. in those days my house was the headquarters for all sorts of strange persons—receivers of stolen goods, professional bondsmen, criminal lawyers, escaped prisoners—but i had never before been honored by a visit from a bank president. what on earth could the president of a bank want of a bank robber?

"i understand that you are one of the most successful bank robbers in america," he said without any delay in coming to the point. "i want your advice in a little undertaking i have in mind, and, if possible, your help."

"my advice and help!" i exclaimed, thinking the man must be out of his head.

"that's exactly what i want," he replied coolly. "i want you to tell me how i can have my bank robbed, and, if possible, i want you to take charge of the robbery yourself."

as he explained, he was more than $150,000 short in his accounts. he had taken this amount from[pg 128] the bank within the past year and lost every dollar of it in speculation. he could not return this money and it was only a matter of a few weeks before his embezzlement would be discovered.

being a man of prominence in his community—a deacon in the church, his wife a society leader, his children in college—running away was out of the question. for months he had been racking his brain for some way of averting the ruin which he had brought upon himself.

the plan he had finally devised for retaining his good name and keeping out of prison was to have his bank robbed. on the night of the robbery he would leave $50,000 in the vault to pay the robbers for their trouble, but, when he came to announce the robbery to the police and the newspapers, he would declare that $200,000 had been taken.

in this way his thefts would be covered up and he could continue to enjoy the respect and confidence of the community where he had always lived.

a banker hires us to rob

i was amazed at the bold ingenuity of this plan and the matter-of-fact way in which he presented it to me. this was the first i had ever heard of a bank being robbed by request of one of its officials. later i came to know that it is not an uncommon thing for dishonest presidents and cashiers to conceal their thefts by hiring robbers to break into their banks. the difference between what is actually[pg 129] taken in one of these robberies by request and what the police and the newspapers say is taken covers the amount which the embezzling official has lost in wall street or some other speculation.

what happened when we robbed a bank by request

what happened when we robbed a bank "by request."

at that time such an idea was so new to me that all sorts of suspicions crowded into my mind. probably it was a trap for me, i thought, and i positively declined to have anything to do with it.

but the old banker would not take no for an answer. he urged me to think it over and a week later he called again.

by this time the fear of the disgrace which threatened him and his family had made him a nervous wreck. he begged so piteously for me to help him save his good name that my womanly sympathies got the better of me and i finally consented.

all my feeling for him, however, did not quite free my mind of the fear that the whole affair might be a trick, and i determined to protect myself and the robbers who would assist me with all the shrewdness i could.

"we must have a written agreement," i said at the very start.

the banker objected to this, fearing, i suppose, that i might use the paper against him later for blackmail. but i insisted that i would not do a thing until i had it.

"if you can't trust me to that extent i can't trust you," i said firmly—and at last he told me to draw up the paper and he would sign it.

according to the contract which i prepared, the[pg 130] banker paid five thousand dollars down and was to pay me an equal amount as soon as i had completed my arrangements and set the date for the robbery. he further agreed that there should be at least $50,000 in cash in the bank vault on the night of our visit.

it was further provided that the banker should cooperate with me and my fellow robbers in every possible way, and that he should do nothing to aid in our arrest or conviction for the crime, which, as was expressly stated, was committed at his suggestion, and not ours. in case the robbery was interrupted before we could get inside the vault the banker was to pay us $25,000 in cash in addition to the $10,000 already advanced.

i agreed to leave no stone unturned to carry out the robbery and promised to return the agreement to the banker as soon as all its provisions had been fulfilled.

all this i set down on paper in as businesslike way as i knew how. it was a document which would have made the poor old banker's ruin even greater than his thievings had done if i had been the sort of woman to break faith with him. with trembling fingers he signed it and counted out $5,000 in bills.

from the banker i had gained a good idea of the bank and the sort of vault we would have to enter. now, to get some good, reliable men to help me do the job.

of all the bank burglars in my acquaintance george mason seemed best fitted for this particular[pg 131] crime. he was a cool, resourceful fellow and had had wide experience in blowing open bank vaults.

george readily agreed to join me, and for the rest of the party he recommended two younger men—tom smith and frank jones, i will call them, although those were not their names. i do not like to reveal their identity here because they later reformed and led honest lives.

right here let me say that i never told these three men of my arrangements with the banker or that i was to receive from him $10,000 in addition to what we expected to find in the vault. if they are alive to-day and read these lines they will learn here for the first time that the bank in quincy, ill., which they helped sophie lyons rob was robbed by request of its president.

boring into the bank vault

i sent word to the banker that we were ready and he came to my house and paid me $5,000 more. then, by different routes, george mason, the other two robbers and i proceeded to quincy.

i was the first to arrive. i went to the leading hotel, announced my plan to add a patent medicine laboratory to the town's industries and began to look around for a suitable location for my enterprise. as i believe i mentioned in a previous chapter, this ruse of the patent medicine laboratory was one i had borrowed from my friend, harry raymond—he had used it to splendid advantage in his robbery of the boylston bank in boston.

[pg 132]

of course, it was a part of my prearranged plan with the banker that the quarters i should finally find best suited for my purpose would be a room on the second floor of the bank building, directly over the vault we were going to rob.

i made several visits to the bank before i completed my arrangements with the president—partly to carry out my r?le of the cautious business woman and partly to study the construction of the vault and see where we could best bore our way into it.

by the time the lease was signed the three men who were to be associated with me in the new business arrived. with their help i secured a quantity of bottles, labels, jars of chemicals, chairs, desks, tables, and other things we would need if we were really making patent medicine.

among the articles of furniture we moved in was an unusually large oak wardrobe. we removed the bottom from this and placed it over the exact spot in the floor where we planned to dig our opening into the bank vault.

then, while one of the men and i ostentatiously pasted labels on endless bottles of "golden bitters," the other two men crawled into the wardrobe where no chance visitor could see them and day after day continued the work of removing the layers of brick and timber which separated us from the vault. we stored the débris as it accumulated in bags and carried it away every night.

it was a long job and a hard one. the floor[pg 133] timbers were seasoned oak and beneath them were two layers of brick.

in the cramped space inside the wardrobe it was hard to work to the best advantage and, besides, the men never knew just how far they had progressed and were in constant fear that an extra vigorous blow would loosen a big strip of plaster in the ceiling of the bank.

to our disgust we found, after we had passed through the floor itself, that the vault had a sort of false roof composed of short lengths of railroad iron placed irregularly in a setting of mortar and brick. this made our task three days longer than we had expected.

late one afternoon george mason cleared away a space which left only a thin layer of lath and plaster between us and the inside of the vault.

there was too much danger of the gaping hole we had dug under the wardrobe being discovered to admit of any further delay. we made our arrangements to rob the bank that very night.

while the rest of the town was going to bed we waited impatiently for it to get late enough for us to lay our hands on the $50,000 which i had every reason to believe was waiting below that thin layer of lath and plaster. luckily enough the bank's watchman was at a christening party that evening and was not likely to return until the wee small hours. this prevented the necessity of my remaining on guard outside.

shortly after midnight we turned out our lamps[pg 134] and lighted our dark lanterns. i peered out of the window—the streets were deserted.

george mason took a small sledge hammer and with one or two well directed blows opened up the hole in the floor wide enough to admit his body. then he tied one end of a long rope under his arms and we lowered him down into the vault.

my comrade's narrow escape

to the best of my knowledge and belief the cash which had been promised would be found right on the shelves of the vault, and all george would have to do would be to stuff it into his pockets and climb back up the way he had come.

but, whether through intent or an oversight on the president's part, that was not the case. for several minutes we waited breathlessly listening to george as he fumbled around the vault by the light of his dark-lantern. then we heard him call in a hoarse whisper:

"sophie, it's just as i was afraid it would be. every cent of the money is locked up in the small steel safe. i'll have to come back up and get my tools."

it is the custom in big bank vaults to have a small and separate steel safe to put the actual cash into. leases, documents, account books, and sometimes bonds and stock certificates are kept in the big vault, but money and things of special value are usually locked up in the inside steel compartment.

[pg 135]

with some difficulty we hauled him back up. from his bag he selected the drills he thought he would need and from a bottle poured out what seemed to me an extra generous quantity of black powder.

"be careful and not use too much of that stuff," i called as he disappeared again through the hole. "ned always said that was your worst failing."

"don't you worry, sophie," he replied; "it will take a good big dose to open this safe."

for several minutes we sat there listening to the rasping of his drills against the door of the safe. just as we felt that tug on the rope which was the signal to haul him up, we saw the flare of his lighted match and heard the sputter of the fuse.

we pulled on the rope for all we were worth but before george's body was within two feet of the hole in the floor there came a blinding flash, followed by an explosion that shook the building.

although dazed by the shock and half blinded by the cloud of dust and poisonous fumes which poured up through the hole, we managed to keep our hold on the rope and haul our helpless comrade out of the death trap in which the premature explosion had caught him.

"george!" i called, as we lifted the rope from under his arms. but he never answered and i thought it was only a corpse that we laid gently on the floor. his hair and eyebrows were completely burned off, his face and hands were as black as coal and he was bleeding from an ugly wound in the head.

[pg 136]

we forgot the money we were after—we forgot the danger of being caught—in our anxiety for our wounded friend. one of the men brought water while i tried to force a drink of brandy down his throat. it seemed an age before he came to his senses, raised himself on one elbow and roughly pushed me aside.

"it went off too quick for me," he said; "but don't be foolish—i'll be all right in a minute. look and see if the noise has roused the town."

i looked out—there was not a soul in sight. the bank's thick walls and the fact that it stood at some distance from any other building had evidently prevented the explosion being heard outside.

we get the bank's money

although suffering intense pain george insisted on going back to get the money. it was no easy task, for the vault was full of suffocating smoke. there was no time to lose, as the watchman might return at any minute.

after a few minutes we hauled him up for the third time.

"that charge blew the safe door to splinters, but here's every dollar it contained," he said, handing me several packages of bills.

i counted the money and had hard work to conceal my surprise when i found there was only $30,000. but, as mason thought himself lucky to escape with his life and, as the other two men seemed well satisfied with the amount, i said nothing.

[pg 137]

we started at once for chicago, where a few days later we divided the spoils. as i had expected, the bank's loss was placed by the newspapers at $200,000. a large reward was offered for the capture of the robbers. i was pleased to note that the president's story of the amount taken and of the complete mystery in which the affair was shrouded seemed to be generally accepted.

after the excitement had died down the bank president came to detroit to see me. worry over the possibility of his crime being discovered had shattered his nerves and he was such a poor broken specimen of an old man that i did not have the heart to demand the additional $20,000 which he had promised us. as i tore up our agreement and handed him the pieces, he said:

"my criminal folly has ruined my peace of mind. thanks to your help, i have saved my family from disgrace, but the worries and nervous strain of my defalcation and the bank robbery have killed me. my doctors say i have heart disease, and have but a few months to live. i wish i had known two years ago what i have since learned—that crime does not pay."

facing a lynching mob

the desperate risks every criminal has to run often come through no crime of his own, but through his association with other criminals. two of the most exciting events in my varied career [pg 138]happened to me through my loyal effort to save the life of my friend, tom bigelow, a well-known bank sneak and burglar.

it was in mount sterling, kentucky, that all this happened. i was there on a perfectly legitimate errand and had no idea that any of my criminal friends were in the vicinity.

there was a circus in town that day and the long main street was crowded with sightseers. i had been watching the parade with the rest and was on my way back to the hotel for dinner when i heard some one call my name.

looking around in surprise i saw johnny meaney, a young bank sneak, whom i knew well, pressing his way through the crowd toward me. he was all out of breath and in the greatest agitation.

"sophie," he whispered in my ear, "they've just caught tom bigelow with the bank's money on him and they're going to lynch him."

there was no time to ask him more—before the last word was fairly out of his mouth he had disappeared in the crowd.

as i afterward learned, tom and johnny had taken advantage of the excitement created by the circus parade to rob the mount sterling bank. while the cashier was standing upon the counter to see the passing parade, johnny had crawled in under his legs and taken a bundle of money out of the vault.

he got safely out with his plunder and was just handing it to tom, who had been waiting in a buggy[pg 139] outside, when the cashier discovered his loss and raised a great outcry. before tom had time to stir out of his tracks a hundred willing hands in the crowd had made him a prisoner—then some one started the cry, "lynch the yankee robber!" and some one else brought a rope.

in the excitement nimble john meaney had managed to escape. as he dashed down the street he had chanced to catch sight of me and had passed me the word of our friend's peril.

the crowd was already hurrying in the direction of the square in the center of the town where the court house stood and i followed as fast as my legs could carry me.

as i entered the square i could see tom's familiar form looming above the heads of the yelling mob which surrounded him. he was mounted on a soap box under an oak tree which stood in front of the court house.

i shall never forget how he looked—pale as a sheet, his feet tied with rope, his arms securely bound behind him. he was bareheaded and they had removed his coat and collar in order to adjust the noose which hung around his neck.

quite plainly, if there was anything i could do to save my friend, it must be done quickly. the mob was loudly clamoring for his life. already a young man was climbing up the tree in search of a convenient limb over which to throw the end of the rope.

i shuddered to think that, unless i could devise[pg 140] some plan of action, tom bigelow's lifeless body would soon be dangling before my eyes.

summoning every ounce of the nervous energy i possessed i pressed my way through the crowd, screaming frantically:

"that man is my sweetheart! don't lynch him—oh, please don't lynch him!"

my action took the crowd by surprise—they made a lane for me and pushed me along until finally i stood right at tom's feet.

how i saved tom's life

i climbed up on the box beside tom; i threw my arms around his neck, although the feel of that ugly noose against my flesh made me shudder.

"this man is innocent—he is my sweetheart," i kept shouting. "you must let him go."

i hugged tom bigelow, i kissed him, i wept over him—i did everything i could imagine a woman doing when the man she loves is about to be hung before her eyes.

"if you hang him you'll have to hang me, too," i screamed between my heart-rending sobs.

the crowd was amazed. lynchings were no uncommon occurrence in that region, but nothing like this had ever happened before.

the cooler heads in the crowd began to have their say. "take that noose off his neck and lock them both up," some one shouted.

the sheriff put handcuffs on us and led us away.[pg 141] my ruse had succeeded. tom bigelow's life was saved!

tom and i were lodged in jail, indicted by the grand jury and held without bail for trial. of course, i was innocent of any share in the robbery, but, as the authorities believed my story that i was tom's sweetheart, they thought i must know more about it than i admitted.

it was while we were confined in the jail at mount sterling that i had an opportunity to see for myself how it feels to face a desperate lynching mob. that was one of the most horrid nightmares i ever experienced.

one of our fellow inmates in the jail was a man named murphy logan, who was awaiting trial for the murder of his father. he was a sullen, weak-minded fellow, who had several killings to his discredit. the general opinion was that he belonged in an insane asylum.

in another neighboring cell was a young man named charlie steele. he was exceedingly popular in the community. his worst fault was love of liquor and he was in jail for some minor offense which he had committed on one of his sprees. the other prisoners shunned logan on account of his disagreeable ways, but steele good naturedly made quite a friend of him and they often played cards together.

in this jail the prisoners were allowed the freedom of the long corridor on which the cells opened. one afternoon tom bigelow and i sat just outside[pg 142] my cell trying to devise some way to regain our liberty. down at the other end of the corridor, charlie steele and murphy logan were enjoying their usual game of cards.

suddenly we were startled by a piercing scream. i jumped to my feet, and looked around to see poor steele lying on the floor with the blood streaming from a long wound in his throat. over him, glaring like the madman he was, stood murphy logan, brandishing in one hand a heavy piece of tin which he had fashioned into a crude sort of dagger.

forgetful of my own danger, i rushed up and seized logan's arm, just as he was about to plunge the weapon into steele's body again. he turned on me, but i managed to keep him from wounding me until tom and some of the other prisoners came to my assistance.

steele lived only a few hours. the sheriff placed the murderer in solitary confinement, and chained him to the floor of his cell. his ravings were something terrible to hear. he continually threatened vengeance on any of his fellow prisoners who would tell how he had slain his friend.

after listening to these threats all night long we were in terror of our lives, and when the inquest was held next day not a single prisoner would admit that he had seen the killing.

"didn't you see this happen?" the sheriff asked me.

"no," i lied, "i was in my cell at the time, and[pg 143] don't know anything about how steele came to his end."

"you lie!" shouted logan, when he heard this. "if you hadn't interfered i would have cut him up worse than i did. i will make you suffer for sticking your nose into my affairs."

the town was in a fever of excitement, and from the windows of our cells we could see excited groups discussing the murder on every corner. feeling ran particularly high, because the dead man had been so popular in the community while nobody liked murphy logan.

late that night logan became so exhausted with his ravings that he fell asleep. i was just preparing to try to get some rest myself when i heard the tramp of heavy feet coming up the jail stairs.

by the dim light of the one smoky kerosene lamp i saw a crowd of masked men trooping into the corridor. the leaders carried heavy sledge hammers, and with these, having been unable to make the sheriff give up his keys, they attacked the iron door of logan's cell.

it quickly fell to pieces before their sturdy blows. then they broke the murderer's shackles and dragged him, shrieking curses with every breath, down the stairs and out into the street.

they strung him up to a tree, riddled him with bullets, and left his body hanging there in the moonlight in full view of my cell window. this was too much for my overwrought nerves. i threw myself on my couch and wept. tom bigelow did his best[pg 144] to console me, but i could not sleep—my head ached and i trembled in every limb.

about an hour later i heard that ominous tramp of feet again! this time the masked men came straight to the door of my cell.

"is this where that woman is?" a rough voice called.

i cowered in a corner, too frightened to reply. they pounded the door down just as they had murphy logan's. a man seized me by the arm and pulled me out, none too gently.

they were going to lynch me—i was convinced of that. with tears streaming down my cheeks i pleaded, as i never had before, that i was innocent of any crime, and begged to be allowed to go back home to my children.

they took me downstairs into the sheriff's office, where sat a man who seemed to be the leader of the mob.

"so you tried to save charlie steele's life, did you?" he said to me.

then for the first time it dawned on me that perhaps i was not going to be hanged after all. i told the whole truth about what i had done when i saw logan waving his dagger over his victim. when i had finished the leader said:

"that's all we want to know, young woman. we liked charlie steele, and we like you for what you tried to do for him. now you're free to get out of town—that's your reward for trying to save poor charlie. we'll see you safely to the depot."

[pg 145]

i was overjoyed. the leader handed me enough money for my traveling expenses and permitted me to go up to tom's cell and tell him of my good fortune. before day broke i was on a train for detroit.

these are only a few of the desperate risks which my husband, my friends, and i were constantly facing during the years when i was active in crime.

if every business man and merchant faced prison, bullets, or a lynching as a necessary risk of trade, would anybody regard business life as attractive?

the incidents from my own experiences give one more illuminative reason why i maintain that crime does not pay!