Helen Walker is 12 years old. Her father is John Walker, a lawyer, and the family resides in Oakland Park. Mr. Walker always has been proud of his daughter. But he boasts about her now.
Helen’s mother, when she kissed her girl good-by yesterday morning, had said she would not be home till late. That’s why Helen grew suspicious.
She heard some one walking upstairs when she came home from school. It couldn’t be her father. And the step was too heavy for her mother; and, besides, her mother wasn’t home.
So she tiptoed upstairs and into her father’s room, and she found a big revolver in a bureau drawer. Then she walked quietly into the room where the noise seemed to come from.
She saw a man putting things into a bag--silverware, bric-a-brac, ornaments, jewelry--all her mother’s pretty things.
The girl drew in her breath sharply. The burglar turned. His little eyes glared at her--a slim little creature with a halo of golden hair and a revolver--and blue eyes that looked into his unafraid.
“It’s loaded,” said the girl. “Don’t you think you’d better drop my mamma’s silver comb?”
The burglar did. Likewise a rope of pearls.
“Hadn’t you better turn the bag upside down on the bed there?” the girl continued.
Then she made him turn his pockets inside out, and, keeping the revolver trained on him, walked him down the steps and onto the porch.
“Say, kid, you’re all right,” he affirmed, and walked away.
And Helen went and told the neighbors--and was afraid to go back into the home she had just defended--until the arrival of her mother.
About to be married and needing money, Edward Russell, 19 years old, decided it would be easier to steal the money than work for it.
So he turned auto robber, and was captured with three other young men, after they held up Edward Bessinger and took his satchel, containing $3,000. They told their stories yesterday in the Chicago avenue police station and gave their strange motives for becoming criminals.
“I was going to be married and knew I would need a lot of money,” said Russell. “I couldn’t get enough by working and thought a holdup would be the best way.”
John Harper said he joined the other robbers because his father was in trouble.
“He is a saloon-keeper in Walsingham, Ill., and was caught staying open after hours,” said Harper. “He needed money to help him out, and the only way I had to get it was to steal it.”