The Two Thieves

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The burglar hardened by his many crimes, plans to rob a bank. He succeeds in entering it, but just before blowing the safe, he goes into the cashier's office, and stumbles over the dead body of the cashier. He has killed himself. The burglar sees a note on the desk. Reading it, he learns that it is from the cashier to his wife, saying that he was short in his accounts and that since he has disgraced his family, he would take this means of expiating his sin. Just then the telephone rings, and for a whim, the burglar answers it. It proves to be the cashier's wife. After hanging up the receiver, his quick eye falls on the picture of a beautiful woman, the same who called over the phone, which he recognizes as the idol of his boyhood days. Sitting there, the burglar has a vision of his school days. A little girl is crying because some boy has thrown her books in the dirt. He sees himself jump onto the boy. Then he hands the books to the little girl and swells with pride when she thanks him. And then the vision vanishes. Stooping over the body of the cashier, he rips his collar, shirt and coat, giving the impression of a desperate struggle. Then he quickly blows open the safe and departs. The next morning the burglar reads in the papers how Frank de Vos, the brave cashier of the First National Bank, was shot and killed while defending his patron's money. Laying aside the paper, the burglar, with a smile, draws from his pocket the meager fruits of a hard dangerous night's work, a letter and a woman's photograph.