PERCY AND GWEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 12, 15 January 1937, Page 5

PERCY AND GWEN.

STRANGE ADVENTURE.

VISIT TO POLICE COURT.

EVIDENCE GIVEN.

Percy is only a little fellow, six and a half, to be exact. Gwen is nearly eight. They are playmates, as so mauv happy children arc. The circumstances that found them romping together at Eastbourne some weeks ago, as so many happy children do, led them into a strange adventure which took them not into the land of make-believe where fairies are, but into quite a different place of rather frightening reality— the Magistrate's Court at Wellington (says the "Dominion.") To be sure, Percy and "Gwen (their other names do not really matter) had done nothing wrong at all. Quite the contrary. They were called as witnesses in a case in which the police charged two men with stealing from a property at Eastbourne. Percy and Gwen were playing there and saw the men taking away bottles and old iron and rags. When a constable called the name of Percy the door opened admitting a diminutive figure in a grey cardigan. Hirs blue eyes opened very 'wide as he looked about him at the 'unaccustomed scene. Percy was being helped into the witness box when the magistrate. Mr. Luxford, smilingly said, "Let him stand beside it; he can't see over the top." "Your name is Percv ?" began Detective-Sergeant Dovle, who must have looked fearfully tall to Percy. The lad pondered and nodded, a lock of hair falling over his brow. "You know what the truth is, don't you, Percv?" continued the detective-sergeant. * "Yes. I do," replied the boy in a voice that left no doubt that he was going to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothinsr but the truth. "What standard are you in, Percy?" "Primer Two." Percy, unflinchingly meeting Mr. iDoyle'e eyes and seeing gentleness in

them, told his story with the guilelessness of his years. It seemed that the I men "took bottles 'n brass 'n bits o* i tin."' "What did thev do with them?" asked' Mr. Doyle. J- When they got the fings they put I them on a lorrwie." " I "What happened then, Percy?" | "Gwennie said to the men not to take! I the bottles 'cause her father makes beer in them." ! This reference to the home-brew industry caused subdued merriment, the i significance of which was altogether lost |on Percy's unsophisticated mind, i "That is all. Thank you, Percy. I Good-bye." said Mr. Luxford. Percy retired and made way for an equally mystified Gwen. ! "Your full name is Gwen ?'* | asked Mr. Doyle, not quite able to shake [off the routine introduction of witnesses acquired through the years. Gwen was obviously scared, and there was a suspicion of tears. "Don't be frightened. | dear," said the detective-sergeant, bending from his great height and patting her. "Your daddy is with you." Fortified with the comfort of her father's arms about her. Gwen told her story | with the prompting of the detective. | sergeant, who. however, scrupulously adhered to the rules of evidence. "I told the men not to take the bottles." said Gwen. i The idea of (Jwen. three feet six. comjmanding'two bi<r men not to take the [bottles, appealed very much to ihe I Court, which made no secret of its admiration. Owen's blue eyes frazinsr resolutely round the room from beneath a shady panama hat. came to rest on , the detective-sergeant's face, and -he went on: "They said they wouldn't take the beer bottles, but only the lemonade bottles, but they took the beer bottles, too." Both Percy and Gwen were invited to look and see if the men who had taken the bottles were in the room. Percy, from the floor where he stood, and Gwen lifted on to Mr. Doyle's desk, peered round about them. The row of lawyers, the reporters, the public at the back, the policemen and the magistrate—all came under scrutiny. That is, everyone, it seemed, except the two occupants of the dock. No, Percy and Gwen could not identify the men Gwen had told not to take the bottles So ended the adventure.