SLEUTH LANDS A CATCH!

NZ Truth, Issue 1079, 29 July 1926, Page 9

SLEUTH LANDS A CATCH !

Coat Fails To Conceal A Criminal

(From "Truth's" Special Christchurch -Rep.) The. winter winds Blow cold m v Christchurch, but even .so it Is unusual to see a man carrying about his person two overcoats. This, however, was the spectacle, that greeted Detective Laugeson as he was strolling casually down Madras Street. , MOW, being- a sleuth with / a pair of \ gimlet eyes m his head, he thought it a queer business. s"H.i, you!" But Edgar Pengelly was by no means anxious to chat the matter over with any]>ody--far Jess with a detep, tive. : , v And Pehgeljy has had some.V H e ' is no stronger to the interior of a gaol, having just recently, vacated His Majesty's prison m Welling^ ■ -ton. ; . •'.. ''"■". But Laugeson Wa,s npt to be put off so easily. Be wanted to know the ins and outs of that coat, One on and the other over the man's arm. Very suspicious to gay the least, and as Pengelly cpuld not. satisfy the detective he Svas collected and taken along to the station, An,d it was just like going home, to Pengelly. -He Knows quite a, number of detectives, who he has kept busy m his day. Nothing Doing! It appears that he had taken a fancy to the coat, which was hanging tempt--dngly on a nail outside a shop m Manchester Street. ' To fancy was to collect with Pengelly, the only fly m the ointment ber jiig that Laugeson should have been so inquisitive. . "I have a job to go 1 to m the country straight away," said Pen* gelly when he was' lined up later before' Magistrate Young, but there was nothing doing. • "I see you were let put on probationery license and committed theft's," remarked the S.M, . "You apparently went back to gaol and finished your term. You have several times been convicted of . theft and have had several terms of reformative, treatment, -;' "This time you will go to gaol for six months with hard labor." And Pengelly stepped ddwn and passed from view. ;