..4
O'Keefe, Ahkoond of Swat: A Tale of Modern
I
r .
f.
I
Methods and Luck of a Lucky Man By Win. H. Osborne
tnitV MI ft-. TTf aw M .........
5i
(Copyright, MOI, br William Hamilton
Osborne.)
Note The, scene or thin narrative la laid
In the mythical town of Monroe, on the
Pnclt1o ccihmc One or two chapters are
laid In the Inland of Swat In tbe Pacific
ocen. The island, but not th name, la
fictitious. There la a principality of Swat
In the northeast corner of India, the rotor
of which la known the A k Hound. The
CVfitury dictionary describes this a belnfj
a province of which little la known. I
have made It an laiand instead of a part
of the mainland, explaining;, of course,
the discrepancy. The suggested derivation
of the name of "Bwat" aa found la one of
tbo latter chapter of the book. in. of
course, purely fanciful. W. 1 1. O.
CIIAPTKR L
CtlttlmaJ Saaltk.
lONSTlTUTIONAI SMITH "M ft
atrong-arra man. That, and a
bit of -a swindler, too. In (act.
his an ocean aa a strong-arm mam
was due to the finesse which
made him, upon occasion, a successful
swindler. But It was as a strong-arm man
that he excelled, tie possessr-il the first
essential Individual strength to a Terr ,
groat degree. It hi the lack of fine physical
ability, the lack of strength, that has to
often been the ruin of strong-arm men and.
has brought the .profession Into disrepute.
A strong-arm man who can neither suc
cessfully cvado nor battle with the pollca
department. Individually or collectively, Is
something lens than a cipher. lie la mora
than a knave he Is a fooL Hla place Is
behind the ribbon counter In a dry goods
store. lie Is, literally, no good.
Constitutional Smith was none of the.
Ilu had been too well brought up. H
was a thoroughbred. His father waa the
man who cracked the County National
bank In New York In 71 and made th
most suoceMBful snd sensational loot of
the decade. His mother came of a family
of well known and well recognised hotis
breakers, and his grandfather waa one of
the most accomplished horse thieves west
of the Miaeiasippl. Th branches and
tendrils of his family root had for genera
tlon after generation received life and
nourishment from many varied strata of
the under-world!
Constitutional 3fnlth had several virtues.
He hnd no sweethearts, and no regular as
sociates or pals. He had no entangling al
liances. He worked alone. Beyond that,
apparently, he luld no schemes and mad
no plana; he left no track or trail behind
him; there were no. earmarks, to his Jobs.
Members of the force arriving at the scene
of operations In any particular case could
never sey, from evidence he left, "This is
one of Constitutional's Jobs." Not by a
Ions; ahot. And herein he was wine. For It
Is the man who carefully lays plans who
makes trouble for himself, the man who
hangs around a Job before It la executed
that Is Identified upon hie trial. It la the
man who walks In snd does his Job and
then walks out that goes scot tree. There
are many instances of this. Up In Massa
chusetts a few year ago some one who,
u one knows to this day walked late a
bowse, butchered Its occupants, executed a
robbery, and then walked out. A hundred
people might have seen this thing. As a
matter of fact, no one saw It. A year later
th same thing happened In Brooklyn, The
whole countryside discussed each of these
caste for e, year. Bach is still a mystery.
How, Constitutional Smith was not a
batcher. He had never killed even ta self
defease. But his methods were Jtmt that.
Suddenly he swooped down .upon his victim,
be It house or bank or individual, did bis
work aad left that was all.- He was too
economical to leave his visiting card, lie
walked awayand there was another little
mystery to bis credit; and a new t&Cur
chalked up against the sleuths. - . j
Aad Constitutional Smith, had another
Virtue he was close mouthed; he never
talked. He never blabbed. He took good
car that word of bis achievements never
reached th dhres. No oae ever whispered
la the hotee In the ground that Constftu
tkmars made aaother haul. Te make con
fidants of his fellow criminals was. as Con
stitutional regarded It placing Just so
mew material evidence m the hands of the
police. The constitution guaranteed to
Constitutional the right of free speech, but
Conxtltatlonal Smith knew that In his ease
freedom of speech meant the curtailment
Of his liberty. Silence la golden, and time
usually Is money: aad In this case speech
meant Just the sort of time that Constitu
tional preferred not to do; and silence was
money In hla pocket. Bo be kept mum, did
Constitutional SraJth,
Constitutional bad another vlrtne h w.
gentle. He had a giant's strength, but he
rarely used It Tike a giant. ' Like a suc
cessful and popular dentist, he could not
always help hurting his victim, but he
hurt no more than was necessary. But
whereas the dentist hammers In the vicin
ity of the skull to put gol. in. Constitu
tional hammered for the purpose of taking
go!d out. But his little taps were fatal.
21 bad another dentist's habit he used
aa anaesthetic. Abstracting money from
th person of an individual. Is always pain
ful. He mercifully deadened the min as
xaoch as possible. But he never carried
tools or arms or chloroform save for about
upon three bank messengers, each fully
armed, and perpetrated In broad daylight
In Wall street In the sight of half a thou
sand men. To a moral certainty Constitu
tional Smith did it, but to a legal certainty
he did not He was acquitted at any rate.
The man that did It got off with some
J3Q.O0O In United States currency. Consti
tutional Smith has never yet denied the
perpetration of this crime.
His second great alleged offense consisted
In cracking the Atlantic and Pacific Trust
company safe In 1891 This was done by
means of setting up a false front to the
afe. painted on canvas a complete fac
slml! of the safe Itself. A member of th
deal closed lata In the afternoon. He
was held up on the highway by one or two
persona, either Smith or another. This
other, probably, was an accomplice,
though Smith, as has been indicated,
rarely worked with an accomplice. This
man upon the trial waa claimed to be a
stranger and was the principal witness
against Smith. Smith, however, allowed
conclusively that the stranger was covered
with blood, presumably the victim's, while
Smith wa Innocent of any evidence of the
'crime. The stranger's evidence was all
th prosecution had. Smith was acquitted
and the stranger was arrested. On his
trial Smith swore that the blood upon th
.1;'
2n Ail' MflF
TO
A MAN STANDING IN THS CfcNTKlt OK TUB KLOOR SHOWED A LIGHT KOR A BRIEF SPACE OK TIME.
an hour before and an hour after each
Job. He knew better. He was well up In
the law of evidence.
: Aa an earnest of the Bkill and Ingenuity
of Mr. 8ml th. It Is only fair to mention
here one or two of his achievements. The
world knows about Home of them and has
marveled at them, although In each case
Constitutional Smith left the prisoners'
dock a free man, with an unproved charge
behind him. That was because Constitu
tional Smith had prepared his defense be
fore he had committed his crime a wise
thing to do. An ounce of prevention Is
worth a pound of.- cure. Theso cases
merely have to be mentioned In order to be
recalled.
One of these was the famous bank mes
senger cane. It was a robbery perpetrated
force and a detailed watchman looked with
complaisance upon this false front all
through the night. Behind It was Consti
tutional Smith and a dismantled safe. This
coup d'etat resulted in another famous case
of the People, etc., against Smith. It re
sultod also in another - acquittal of th
one-and-only Smith.
To the trial of hla third case be owes
hla peculiar name. In that case hla guilt
of some crime at least was proven be
yond a reasonable doubt. He was charged
with larceny from the person of one W'll
loughby O. Schnerk. The larceny waa ac
companied with violence. The crime oc
curred on the outskirts of a country town.
Willoughby O. Schneck was driving home,
and foolishly carried with him nearly K30,
X In cash, the proceeds of a real estate
stranger's clothes was obtained in a fight
by which the stranger attempted to ar
rest Smith at the time of the robbery. The
circumstances were peculiar, but upon each
trial the facts seemed to corroborate
Smith. The alleged stranger was ac
quitted. Smith was rearrested for th
crime Immediately, but immediately" h
claimed his constitutional privilege, that
no man can be twice tried for the same
offense, and the court ordered his im
mediate release. On that occasion Smith
argued his own case. . It . never occurred
to the authorities at that time to take
Wm into custody on the charge of per
Jsry, and in the confusion. Smith, having
an the nomadic tendencies of the Arab In
the poem, walked down the center aisl
the court room and silently stole away.
When they looked for him be had wisely
