Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

THE ROMANCE OF BANKING 285in such a perilous position that most of the population of thetown had to come to the rescue. Finally it was conveyed tothe half-finished quarters that had been provided, where ateller's cage was improvised by barricading the door of themanager's room with a dining-room table, the manager himselfmaking use of an old beer cask as a desk. It was not long,however, before Prince Rupert began to assume the aspect ofa settled community, and the pioneering period was shorterthere than in those places which owed their rise to sudden andevanescent mineral discoveries.A "hold-up," to use a term in general use in this country,isnot an uncommon banking experience at outposts, but fewsuch incidents have been attended by such extraordinarycircumstances as the one which occurred on September 15,1902, at the branch in Skagway, Alaska. Skagway is situatedon the Lynn Canal, one of the outlets of the great gold countryof the Yukon, and at this period the branch did a large businesswith prospectors going into or coming out of the gold country.On the day in question the office was in charge of two men,George Wallace, a veteran of the South African War, andCharles R. W. Pooley, who afterwards saw service in France.Toward closing time a stranger walked into the bank, and producinga stick of dynamite asked Wallace if he knew what itwas. Wallace, thinking the man was joking, replied, "Yes,dynamite." The visitor then demanded that Wallace givehim $20,000 instantly, or he would blow up the bank, enforcinghis demand by whipping out a revolver and levelling it atWallace.Wallace's South African experience had taught him coolness,and he turned to go into the teller's cage as if to comply.Quick as a flash he called out to Pooley, "Look out, he's got agun," and bolted for the back door. Pooley at the same timejumped behind the open door of a large safe. The man firedat both of them, but the shots went wild, one of them strikinga steel stanchion in the teller's cage and two others enteringthe wall of the office. Almost simultaneously a terrific