The Payroll Cans

Japeri station, auxiliary line of the Central, Friday, June 1960. On Tuesday, at 8:30 a.m., an explosion tore up the rail on the curve at km 71. The locomotive and the pay car left the track and toppled down the embankment.

Five men with women's stockings over their faces came down from the brush shooting. In ten minutes they took twelve cans holding the payroll of more than a thousand railwaymen, swollen this month by a bonus. The fireman was shot in the shoulder and survived.

The gang vanished in a pickup truck down the dirt road. They left no name, no face, no plate. But they knew the day, the hour, and the exact curve where the train slows down.

Three people knew about the curve and the money. One of them opened the way for the gang.

The Japeri stationmaster's office, with a stopped clock, a telegraph and overturned wagons outside.