THE BITER BIT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 137, 9 June 1917, Page 15

THE BITER BIT.

A COMEDY OF THE STREETS OF LONDON. An amusing story of how Private Theodore Harder, Middlesex Regiment, got the better of a London sharper was told at Bow Street. He was walking in Charing Cross Road when Arthur Riley, a man of sixty, got Into conversation with him. Riley pitched a yarn about having just returned from Australia after fifteen years' absence, and then confided that he had an 18-carat gold ring worth £2. which he would sell to the soldier for 15/. Harder, recognising the signs, pretended to be interested, and having beaten the price dowu to 8/. asked him to wait while he got change for a note. He really hurried to Bow Street, and having there laid plans with the police, returned to the smiling Riley. The soldier produced the money, Riley produced the ring—and at that moment the soldier, "according to plan." put up his thumbs t__hind his back as a signal.

Two detectives at once came up and carried Riley off to the station, where he was Identified as an old hand. He was sentenced to three months' bard labour.