A CRIMINAL ROMANCE.

Evening Post, Volume XLII, Issue 142, 12 December 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

A CRIMINAL ROMANCE.

We have a case now going through the Police Court which, if the story is a true one, would put to shame Fergus Hume's most daring invention in the line. Some months ago a burglary was committed in a boardinghouse opposite the Exhibition. The burglar got into the bedroom of a Mr. and Mrs. Lorck. The gas was burning dimly, and Mr. Lorck awoke. He sprang out of bed, and the burglar out of the window ; but Mr Lorck, as he disappeared, got him by the coat-tail, which came off in his hand. The police arrested a man named Bell ; he was convicted, and is now doing four years. But according to the Police Court story he was the wrong man. The burglar was a man named Giles. When he escaped from the window, leaving the tail of his coat in Mr Lorck's hands, and having been seen by that gentleman, he went to a pal of his named Thompson and took counsel how he should get out of the scrape — that is, keep out of the clutches of the police. Thompson was a genius, apparently, a man who, if he had turned his talents to inventing plots for shilling snookers, would have made his name famous. He hatched out a scheme which was as bold as it was ingenious. Giles, when he lost his coat-tail, was wearing a suit of tweed all of one piece and pattern. Thompson said to him, " Oome down town, and I'll find some bloke to fasten it on to." Before he went down he wrote to a detective, "Meet me at 9 to-night, and I'll show you the burglar at Lorck's.' Down Flindersstreet went Thompson and Giles. Presently Thompson said, "There's the very man." This was Bell, whom he knew to have been in gaol for one or two minor offences. Bell, however, did not know him. Thompson asked Bell if he wanted to earn a few shillings. " I want you to look after my cab for a day or two." " Very well, Baid Thompson, " let us have a drink." Bell was still agreeable. " You don't look quite smart enough for a cab, though," said Thompson, "you want a -shave." Bell was again quite agreeable. So he came out of a barber's shop with only a moustache left, and thus was not very far removed from a counterpart of the burglar Giles. " That's better," continued Thompson, " but you're still a bit seedy. I'll tell you. I have a vest and trousers that will just about fit you. Take these and change what you're wearing for them, and meet me at the Exhibition Gardens at 9 o'clock to-night." Bell was agreeable as ever, and at 9 o'clock when he met Thompson, weanng Giles' trousers and vest, Thompson, handed him over to the detective. Mr. Lorck identified the man, as well as the clothes he wore ; it was of no avail his telling the Bench that he got the trousers and vest from a stranger, and he was very quickly sentenced to four yeare. Giles, however, did not long escape trouble. For another daring burglary in Brunswick he received a sentence of 14 years, and now he " splits " on Thompson — probably, if the truth were known, to be revenged on the detective. There is no service under the sun in which there is co much jealousy as in the detective servioe. The officer who made so quick an arrest in Lorck's case

aroused no little jealousy among his ] fellows, and they have probed a ' slight hint to the bottom, with the , I result that Thompson is now on his trial for conspiracy. If Bell is proved guiltless the detective's credit . will suffer, for already there is a hint that he was in the secret. But that seems nonsense; and in any case he is fortified by Mr. Lorck's identification of Bell. But the whole story reads just like a romance. [Our cablegrams a few days ago announced that Bell has been released from gaol.]