Detective Bob Bridger — page 220: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

DETECTIVE BOB BRIDGER. 213 full inch under Ted, the bartender’s pressure, and “Tom, the Frog,” declared the bore made. Speedily adjusting a fresh bit, he gave the handle of the brace into Jack, the Fork’s,” hands, and directed him to make a second cut in the door’s lower left corner. Tor five minutes “Jack, the Fork,” worked industriously at making the cut. Then he gave up, completely fagged out. Used, as Ted, the bartender, had been, to heavy manual labor, he was too tired to take hold, and Goucher was forced to lend a hand to complete the bore. An hour’s labor, and the second cut was made. A moment’s breathing spell ensued, and then ‘‘T’om, the Frog,” inserted a steel tool, called a ‘‘feeder,” into the upper hole. The “feeder” was, in shape, something like a clay pipe. Like a pipe, also, it possessed a cavity which ran from its bow] through the stem. The burglar then inserted a steel tube into the lower hole, and this he connected by other tubes, which screwed togteher in straight pieces, and elbows, like a gas-pipe, with the exhaust pump on the floor. The crevices about the door, and the inserted tubes, were then puttied shut, so as to entirely exclude the passage of air. “Tom, the Frog,” then kept the bowl of the ‘‘feeder” poured full of powder, while Ted, the bartender, worked the exhaust pump on the floor. As the air within was exhausted from beneath the powder was sucked in from the ‘‘feeder.” . When “Tom, the Frog’s” practiced eye told him thata sufficient quantity had thus been forced within the safe, the tubes were withdrawn, and the upper hole puttied shut. - Bundles of old clothing were then brought from the rear of the room and piled in front of the safe door and about the safe to deaden the sound of the explosion. Goucher then saturated a handkerchief with chloroform, and held it to Sammy Muggins’ nose. A fuse was then inserted in the lower hole of the safe’s door, and lit. The burglars retired hastily to the stair-way without. Eomicbooks: Go m