A Highland Man Hunt

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3676, 28 February 1899, Page 3

A Highland Man Hunt

ALLAN McCALLUM’S CRIME. The best of the Christmas sensation; lias fallen to the good folk of Inverness and. district in the shape of a man hunt among the- mountains (says the London correspondent of the Auckland “Star,” writing under date of December, 30th). The quarry was Allan McCallum, a ne’er_do well Highlander, who has been practically an outlaw since his boyhood, and who shot Constable King, of Abernethy, at Tulloch, near, Nethybridge—a! wild, isolated spot not far from the desolate Loch Garten, last Tuesday morning. It may be well before pro, ceediiig with the story ,to give- reader? 1 an idea of what manner of man McOJa ■ lum is. ; Born at Loch Ericht nearly .fifty years ago, McCallum spent his boyhood on the braes of Lochaber, where; his father was head gamekeeper. From his childhood McCallum had a storm.;life. His .terrible temper led him inti'' many serious scrapes with the men ur. der his father, and at length Allan waisent to the Falkland Islands as, a step herd. Some seven or eight years ago ; however, he returned to his native placand at once adopted the vocation of a poacher. Clever, agile, • daring, nut.' aided by an intimate knowledge of th ; wild district in which he live!, be elude' for-years the closest vigilance.of pc be ■ and 1 keepers. They knew he was .1 poacher and kept a sharp watch on him r tut McCallum was one too many fo both peace and l game preservers. Tb, secret of his success was his uncompanionable natufei His dog was hit only companion, and the'household ol which ho was the mainstay consiste' only of an old woman known as Blac’ Mog, and her daughter. . The cottage which the trio inhabited was a tworoomed wooden construction perched or an eminence some distance from thmain road to Tulloch. Thither on Tuesday week last went Constable King ailc McNiven to execute a warrant wn.ci. had been out' against McCullum fo sonio time. Black Men informed tht officers that Allan wasn’t, at home, bu( had gone to Loch Garten’. The officers withdrew, but concealed themselves in the bracken hard by to watch. Thei had not lain long before they perceived Black Meg and her daughter .quit she house hurriedly. McNiven followed them for some, distance, but eventual!;) lost trace of them in a thick’wood a little distant ' from the rear of tne cottage. While he was returning the . constable met McCallum, who promptlycovered McNiven . and threatened to' blow his heart out if he moved a stej further. McNiven, who was a strangei in the locality, did not know McCallum and passed on to rejoin King, to whom he told his little adventure. King knew, at once who McNh'en’s uncivil nccostcr. was', and laid his plans accordingly. A small hoy was pressed into

the service of the law to keep watch o' the house. The constables then ostent. tiously retired in the direction of Ab.u nethy. They, however, kept in th neighbourhood of the cottage, and ii the afternoon received word that the; quarry had returned to Ills cabin. i was close on four o’clock when the reached the cottage again, and all. wa darkness within. Their previous visit however, had given them an accural idea of the arrangements of the cabin and before entering they agreed tha King should go into the kitchen an' McNiven into the bedroom. The officer had to feel their way in the gloaming McNiven entered without difficulty, bir had only reached the bed when he bean a shot fired. He shouted to King, bid received no reply, and rushing to th-. door was told by a postman who w standing on* the roadside that McCallun had left the house. Returning to the kitchen McNiven found King lying deal on the floor, with the gun across hr feet. As soon as possible a hue and cry was raised, hut McUallum had got a good start. -* From the first the cap ture of him in such a wild district ivas considered difficult, and he had a thorough knowledge of every nook in the neighbourhood. The murderer bolted minu; his hoots and he was seen hurrying alone the roadway in the direction of Loch Garten. How far he went is not known hut later in the evening he visited a crofter’s-house in another locality anc procured a pair of boots. That writhe last that was seen of him. The night had fallen so that immediate pu-’ suit was impossible. At daybreak nex morning, however, a posse b,f constable; from Inverness started on their arduoin hunt, aided by villagers’ from near am far. At one time as many as sixty o seventy men were in pursuit of tin fugitive. But Wednesday and Thurs day passed and the hunters were a' aivcary of tramping over hill and dale wading through bog and stream, and forcing their way through rain-sodder heather and scrub. Here and then they found traces of the murderer, bn it was not until late on Thursday ever ing that the searchers an;, thing approaching a good clue. Nev.n then came in to the effect that McGa’ lum.had been seen on Wednesday ever ing at the farm of Tomacrocher, not ta' from Broomhill Station. Thither the officers repaired before Friday’s dawr ing. Outhouses were ransacked, stable examined, but all to no purpose. Final!' the searchers tackled the barn. Aide' by the light of a lantern the office were ptoceeding cautiously > into thbuilding when the chief constable ejacu lated, “There he is,” and even as he spoke McCallum sprang up out of a heap of loose straw at tno policeman’s feet. In a' moment half a dozen,.sta’>vart men had flung themselves on the fugitive, who, ihalf dead with' exertior want of food-and sleep, could offer only the feeblest resistance to capture, was secured, and a couple of hours afte' was safely housed in Inverness Gaol. When arrested McCallum presente' a pitiable spectacle, being smothered ir dirt from head to heel, his clothes torp" to ribbons from contact with thorns am wires, and his face and hands streaked with blood from a dozen cuts and scratches. The name of the farm at which ho wa; captured means, strangely enough, “thf hangman’s hill ”