Sentry box

“ The box is placed out in the open where it can be seen and one man is told off as a sentry to guard it. The remainder have their food, and then gradually lie down to sleep. When the camp is all still, the sentry gets tired of standing and presently sits down and begins to nod. ”

“ Not the little stack of handkerchiefs, the folded collars and the like. If Hilda Glaum was in the habit of visiting Deans Folly and used this room it was natural that these things should be here. If this were her bureau the little carton of nibs and the spare note book were to be expected. It was the steel box which set her wondering. This she discovered in the far corner of the drawer. If she could have imagined anything so fantastic she might have believed that the box had been specially made to hold the thing it contained and preserve it from the dangers of fire. ”

“ Mrs. Jeep owned one; Keziah and Patty Ingles the between-maid shared another. One was a spare room for chance servant visitors, and the end one over Pamela's and Hughie's rooms was what is called a "box" room. Here was "luggage"--big, old-fashioned trunks, leather portmanteaux, large hat boxes. Neat piles of cardboard boxes--the sort that drapers and dressmakers send out--all sizes, and tidy stacks of brown paper--sacking--cords--all the odds and ends necessary for packing of any kind. ”

“ They would be more likely to require clean linen.
'We are working on wrong lines,' cried Morris at last. 'The thing must be gone about more carefully. Suppose now,' he added excitedly, speaking by fits and starts, as if he were thinking aloud, 'suppose we rent a cottage by the month. A householder can buy a packing-case without remark. Then suppose we clear the people out to-day, get the packing-case to-night, and to-morrow I hire a carriage or a cart that we could drive ourselves—and take the box, or whatever we get, to Ringwood or Lyndhurst or somewhere ”

“ Hancock. "What are these?"
"Those are the boxes the boys have been pasting," said Ethel Blue, picking up one of them. "They began with the large plain ones first—the real packing boxes."
"Here are some that are large enough for a dress."
"We've gathered all the old boxes we could find in our house or in our friends' houses—Margaret must have hunted in your attic for she brought over some a fortnight ago. None of the things we are making will require a box as large as the tailors send out, [135] so we took those boxes and the broken ones that we found and made them over." ”

“ Well, I am just from the Marquis's chamber and there is no object there beneath which he could conceal even a key. The box must be in either his traveling bags or underneath his mattress. If once you enter the room, 'twill be a moment's work to find it. If the bags are unlocked, take out the box; if locked, carry them off. And beware of blundering. I don't want the English police to mix up into what is none of their business. You must play the role of an ordinary thief who has stolen from even his master. ”

“ The body of the boxes is to be made of wood in the usual manner, viz, a series of pigeon-holes, but the front of the box and the door frame are made of iron, or other suitable metal. Each door frame or box front is so made that it aids in covering the edge of the wooden partition, or pigeon-holes, and is connected with the other frames above, below, and on each side of it in such manner that the frames will make a continuous frontage, no part of which can be removed from the outside without pulling down other parts. ”

“ You can use empty starch boxes such as Si throws on the woodpile, or cheese boxes, or even soap boxes, if they are not too large and heavy. You can fix partitions inside, and then nail perches on the outside under the entrances, then, last of all, you nail the cover on the box again and paint it. If you want a real fancy house, get some bark from a fallen tree and nail it on the outside with wire brads.”
“I’ll get the girls to help me and we’ll do it at once,” promised Norma eagerly. “You ask your husband to save some of those boxes for us, will you, Mrs. ”

“ Human hairs a few inches in length are easily procurable; a single one is practically invisible to the naked eye, and a slight strain will snap it. If cunningly placed across the two covers of a box, on the lid of a box, over an unlocked bag, trunk, suit-case or elsewhere, few Paul Prys would ever dream of suspecting its presence, and the precaution inevitably tells its own tale. ”

“ These boxes are old and paintless and weather-beaten; and at night the very dusty-looking keepers, who from early morning until dark have had their shabby-backed wares spread out where dust and sunlight and wind and rain can attack them, pack them in the body of the box on which they are lying and close the lid. ”

“ You and I are the ones who hire the men who carry the box.”
“Who said a long box that might hold a man? It will be a short, rather tall box, packing-case shape. Remember, he is as limber as you are and can be accommodated to any position. He will be put in it sitting bolt upright. It will be only half the length of a man, with nothing in its shape to suggest that it might hold a man. Who said take it to the medical school from here? I hire a drayman to take a box to the Union Depot. He dumps it there on the sidewalk near the places for in-going and out-going baggage. ”

“ I trust that there is.
I had read the missionary’s letter, and the will, and had handed to Miss Blyth the sealed enclosure. When she opened it she found that within the packet was a little wooden box. On lifting the lid of this box, the first thing she saw—which we all saw—was my God of Fortune, or its double. It was just inside the box, staring at her, as it lay face upwards. Feeling in my waistcoat pocket for the duplicate, I found that it had gone. It had, apparently, passed into that wooden box, which had, until that moment, remained inviolate within that sealed enclosure. ”

“ The door, of iron, a dozen men could not break through. He forced his shoulder against it, and laughed bitterly as he realized that with all his strength he could not even cause it to give the fraction of an inch. He determined to get the snuff box—to examine it—reckless of his fear of being observed. In a moment he had snatched the opera hat from the corner, torn out the lining, and held the box in his hand. ”

“ Maybe you can suggest something else she’d rather have.”
“She’ll love it,” Pop said decisively. “She loves old things—antiques. And this sure looks old.”
“I think it’s old enough,” Richard Holt said. “Several hundred years, I’d guess. It was probably made originally to be used as a sort of home safe-deposit box.” His finger pressed one of the curlicues on the front of the box and the lid sprang open.
“Hey!” Sandy exclaimed admiringly. “A secret catch!”
“May I try it?” Bert asked. “Beautiful workmanship,” he muttered, as his fingers explored the front. ”

“ She wheeled about and pointed at the other side of the alcove, where stood the metal box, sullen, defiant, secure.
“By Jove, that's so, tool Why, I'd all but forgotten that! You're a brick, Beta! The box, by all means. Perhaps the most important things of all are still in safety there. ”

“ With the aid of the pick we prized the stone up. A slot had obviously been cut for it in the rock. A shallow opening was revealed and at the bottom stood a black box.
It was of black leather, discoloured, but apparently in good condition, the corners bound with some dull metal which I took to be brass. It was about four feet long with a rounded lid studded with nails. Bard lifted up one of the lanterns whilst I, lying on my face, dropped an arm into the hole. My fingers closed on a handle at the side of the box. I heaved. The box was immensely heavy and I found that I could barely lift it. ”

“ A large red box, coffin-shaped, with hinges in the middle of the back, and a round hole in the middle of the split503 lid, so that by opening the box, adjusting a man's neck to the place intended for it, and then closing the box again, the contrivance became the ghastliest sort of a pillory. ”

“ All boxes should lock with brass locks. Shun padlocks. A master-key should open all your boxes, even should you have a thousand. Each box should have a pierced metal label slung with wire upon each iron handle. Painted numbers quickly wear out. ”

“ Contrive a six-sided box, six inches in diameter and ten deep, lined with tin or other polished surface, and with a double convex lens in the centre of one side. On the opposite side, exactly in its middle, cut out a hole to receive the face of a watch, with a little shelf outside to hold the case firmly.
Support the box in the centre on a hollow leg, which is watertight and is filled with water, to float a night-light, and let the leg fit into a stand to go on a table by the bed-side or on a shelf at the foot of the bed. ”

“ Sandy braced himself as the barge twisted in a corkscrew dive. Then he closed his teeth around the knob of the next cupboard and pulled that one open. A row of cups hanging on hooks swayed violently with the movement of the barge, and small piles of plates and saucers would have flown into the room except for the guard rails that held them in place. Sandy’s glance fell on a flat traylike box on the upper shelf, above the level of his eye.
Ken saw it too. “That’s it!” he said excitedly. “It’s just like the box Mom keeps knives and forks in—in a drawer in the kitchen table. Can you get it down?” ”

“ Each box is connected by two wires with the head office at the City Hall, and has its number painted in red, and a notice stating where the key is kept, which is generally the nearest house. The authorities usually confide the key to some person whose premises are open all night, such as the proprietor of an hotel, an apothecary, or a doctor. When the box is opened, nothing is seen but a small hook at the top, the interior being concealed by another iron lid. Under this second lid is a steel cylinder with pieces of ebony let into its circumference to correspond with the number of the box. ”

“ He who performs the trick, then touches the box, under pretence of showing how to shake it, and, although it is locked, he easily gets out the piece by means of a secret opening, availing himself of that minute to put in a false piece, and to leave the box with the same person, whom he causes to believe that the piece is or is not within, according to the manner the box is shaken: at length, the original piece is found in the shoe of one of the company, either by means of the person being found in confederacy, and having a similar piece, or by sending another to slip it on the floor. ”

“ If it gets wet it is ruined, so that he seldom ventures to stir abroad without a waterproof cover for it in his capacious sleeve, and it is so easily broken and crushed, that when not in use it must be kept or carried in a wooden box, usually much decorated, as obnoxious in transit as a lady's bandbox. ”

“ Then he got tired and sat down, and all at once he thought what fun it would be if the key fitted the box, for it had a little keyhole in it. So he took the little key out of his pocket, and then he blew first into the pipe of the key, and afterwards into the keyhole, and then he put the key into the keyhole and turned it. "Snap!" it went within the lock; and when he tried the hasp, the box was open.
But can you guess what there was in the box? Why, a cow's tail; and if the cow's tail had been longer, this story would have been longer too. ”

“ Many ingenious contrivances are now used in the form of changing boxes—as they are called—by which plates may easily be transferred to the camera without danger of exposing them to any accidental gleam of light. The jealousy with which a tourist naturally guards his treasured dry plates has more than once roused the suspicions of the acute Custom-house officer, who, in his zeal for the welfare of the revenue, has unwittingly spoilt the produce of many days' careful work, by insisting upon opening the strange-looking box! ”

“ Armstrong," said I, abruptly. "You may have every confidence that you will get your rights, but I will not have that box opened to-night."
"Why, the label itself shows that the box has been examined by Europeans," Allardyce added. "Because a box is a treasure-box is no reason that it has treasures inside it now. A good many folk have had a peep into it since the days of the old Governor of Terra Firma." ”

“ The wood box made of old dry goods boxes should appeal strongly to the home. It can be kept by the stove or on the porch or in some convenient place to be reached, and to be filled by the man before he goes to his daily work. A lid will not only cover up the contents of the box, but it will serve as a comfortable seat to be used while preparing the meal.
[Pg 38] Materials:
1 packing box, 24” deep × 231⁄2” wide × 32” long. 1 pair 2” (butt) hinges with 5⁄8” screws to fasten on top. 1⁄4 lb. 8-penny nails to make box. Sandpaper and stain. Dimensions:
Body: 1 box 24” deep × 231⁄2” wide × 32” long. ”

“ No one puts matches above doors by accident. Whoever put it there must have meant it—and more than that, must have opened it and dropped one out inside the boot-box.
“Now,” considered the astute Arthur, “it was pitch dark when Bickers was collared; lights were out, and the fellows thought they’d have a glim handy in case of need. They struck one and spilt one, and shoved the box up there, in case they should want it again. I say! what a clever chap I am! The tall chap this box belongs to did the job, eh?” ”