The Northfield Tragedy; or, the Robber's Raid / A Thrilling Narrative; A history of the remarkable attempt to rob the bank at Northfield, Minnesota; the Cold-Blooded Murder of the Brave Cashier and an Inoffensive Citizen. The Slaying of Two of the Brigands. The Wonderful Robber Hunt and Capture Graphically Described. Biographies of the Victims, the Captors & the Notorious Younger and James Gang of Desperadoes

by J. H. Hanson

The baffled man again turned to Heywood, and with oaths and threats endeavored to make him open the safe.

Heywood replied that he could not, when the scoundrel fired a pistol close to his ear, and said “if he did not at once open the safe he would scatter his brains.”

The brave Heywood still insisted upon his inability to comply.

The ruffian then seized him by the collar and dragging him toward the safe drew out a long, keen edged knife, and posing it over Heywood's throat, threatened to cut it from ear to ear if he did not at once open the safe.

But the brave man, faithful to his trust, stolidly refused, when the robber released his hold of his collar and went into the safe vault.

Now was the opportunity for the faithful Heywood.

“If I can but get that ponderous door closed,” thought he, “and spring the bolts upon the scoundrel, the”

VILLIANS WILL BE BAFFLED,

“and my integrity saved from suspicion.”

It was a supreme moment of dreadful anxiety to him, and such the [pg 10] intense excitement of his feelings, that when he rushed upon the door to close it, his strength was unequal to the task, and before he could recover himself to renew the effort, a powerful hand seized him by the throat, and threw him back from the vault, at the same time a ruthless arm struck him to the ground with the butt end of a pistol.