I remember reading a short story, many years ago, about a notorious safe-cracker in the old west, who managed to accrue a nice fortune by utilizing his skills. I cannot remember the title or author, or the names of any of the characters. I remember it took about two days to get through the entire story, as my class was reading it in school, so I imagine it was on the longer side of "short".
In the story, the man robs a bank and immediately skips town. He goes to a new town to scope out the bank there, under the guise of a traveling shoe salesman. He meets the bank owner's daughter, and decides to try and use her to get information about the bank's safes and vault, but through the course of the story ends up falling in love with the woman and decides to become a legitimate businessman and put away his drills and stethoscope for good. One day, the bank gets a new safe, and, while the adults are talking about it, a young girl, who is playing with some other children, hides in the new safe and accidentally closes the door, which automatically locks. Before they discover the girl, a detective who had been tracking the thief for several months walks into the bank, and spooks the man. He collects his tools in a bag and attempts to escape, but as he's walking through the main hall of the bank, they discover that the girl is in the safe. He decides to sacrifice his own freedom to save the girl, and then the detective, who saw the whole thing, decides to let him go.