ON THE TRACK OF THE CRIMINAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2812, 5 February 1908, Page 79

ON THE TRACK OF THE CRIMINAL.

Grime-tracking i» not an, occupation- for j tb pen»m> afflicted with, nerves. The perils of a detective' are all roxmd him? — often I most close at hand when he- least expects th«n. j Melville, the great political detective who retired a- year or two back, "was a man bitterly, hated by all the anarchists of hip time. He was- known as "le: vile Mdiville" to hundreds of desperate men. well skilled in murder, and. his "removal" was solemnly vowed by many oi them. But he seemed to bear a charmed life. OXna day a well-dressed stranger managed to somehow present himself unexpectedly before Melville as he sat in his private office, at Scotland- Yard. It would - appear as though he must have., in some strange-fashion, contrived, to obtain special information, as to the great detective's den. — Beneath a Handkerchief.—* Melville greeted the unlooked-for arrival with a ~ pleasant smile and a nod, and then, with * great leap, sprang upon him as tiie man's hand sought his breastpocket. - The coloured silk handkerchief In it had slipped, aside, acd, Melville's keen eye had noted- the glint of a revolver which, it had concealed. The weapon ' was wasted front the would-be assassin's fingers, and the owner of it was treated. to a sound thrashing with a walkingstick which lay handy, and then ignominiously kicked out of the office,, down the passage, and into the street outside, to> be dismissed there as unworthy of further notice. It was subsequently decided by a section of the- foreign anarchists, that Melville should be assassinated by means of the poagnaal, as "a revolver, made too much noise." But the .plotters- overlooked one great drawback to the success of the echeme-^the wielder of a dagger must get within arm's reach of the victim! None- cared to venture so close, to Melville, •who seemed to scent an enemy "intuitively. Instead of seeking to come to close quarters with him, tie whole anxiety of his enemies was to get as far away fiom him. as possible. The blow was never~at*empted. , — On the Departure Platform. — Melville was, however, on. his. part most anxkjaa to come to close terms with, some of thenu Specially did he wish to, meet ■with & certain man named Meunier, a French anarchist who was reputed to be' hiding in. London, and who was charged •with having been concerned in the terrible -outrage in the Cafe Very, in Paris. Melville could not find bis man, though he searched high and low for him. But a, man never knows his luck. As he was going home one day, and as he and his -wife, while waiting for their train at tFicteiia Station, strolled u£ and down

' the. platform, Melville chanced to see Meunier on the platform waiting: for an express. He was. disguised, but not suffi- | ciently to foil Melville's acute eyes. London, had grown, so hot for him that he had resolved to- take an express and. seek ! safety on th© Continent, where- "le vile Melville" was not. With, a few words p* aurried excuse to- his wife,, Melville left ! her, and strolled carelessy- towards the > unsuspecting anarchist. The next mo* ment, to Mrs- > Melville's horror,, she- saw 1 her. husband spring: upon, the mtmt and; bear. him. to- the ground, grasping his- arms with his strong. llanda. " Meunier was secured "quite nicely." He had. a- loaded revolver in his right-hand pocket, and another in his left, while Jiispockets also held loose- cartridges. He loudly expressed his uegoet that he had not had time in which to shoot his captor. ' — Known as "Shooting Harrison." — Harrison wae the* name of a notorious personage- who had obtained ths significanV name of "the shooting Burglar." Once when his arrest was advisable, a litfele army of 12 policemen were sent tosurround the house in, which, het. lay hidi den.- Harriscm escaped., by flriag over the roofs, shooting; at the: officers jn .porI suu oi him, and qerambltn-g dawn & high • wall, and, disappearing in tha -night darkness. Even the most desperate' criminals dreaded "Shooting, Samson." ~ » Aftec that escape came news of* bur* jglaides at Glasgow, at Newcastle,, and- at Bristol\, in all of which the- police- be* lieved they could detect Harriscai's-: daringhand. Then 1 a jeweller's shop waa burgled - at Southampton, and a policeman who bravely taokled the burglarsj.waß nearly killed, with a revorveirehot. It wa& Harrison, once more, and. Detectives Birch- and j M'Garthy registered a. vow. to ran- him down: It was ai long, weary piece of work findingn q- him k At last, however, the- detectives located the ruffian. Hie had openod a. small shop in Battersea aa a, bicycle- repakec! —To Earth at Last.— On© day two welL-dressed gentlemen came to the shop, leading bicycles. One of 1 them.had?liad an accident and- wanted' some" repairs done, and the bicycle repairer^a hiigie, powerful fellow — came forth and commenced? to examine- the wheel. As he bent dV»m.-one of. fehe-offioens hurled himself: upon him,, dashing him to the ground j while- the .other presented' a revolver -to his head. After a- desperate^ struggle- the-cyeiistß^-BSrcb and- McCarthy — succeeded in getting the' handcuffs- on fais wrists* "Weik you've got me at last," growled Harrison,, with" many oaths. "You'll let -me gee myhat,' won't you?" He waved, his manacled hands to the hat ljing. upon a table in the shop, and was* stepping towards it when Birch, interposed., ' - ' "Allow me," he exclaimed. ' The picked-up hat disclosed' a., fullyloaded, sixvchambered revolvers lying benestir it !" The detective's lifting: that hat had possibly saved, the lives of himself and his- companion. "See- what' comes- of being polite," remarked. McCarthy with a laugh. — "The Ghost" TTrightened* Him. — To spend a night in a coffin, would seem disagreeably gruesome to ' some people. It -was the expedient adopted by a. de;tectiye in tie North o£ London to dis- , cover a thief whose visit was expected to an undertaker's premises. The officer must hide somewhere, so he selected a , handsome and commodious coffin out of the undertaker's stock, put Himself insidelit, and' drew-to the lid. He waited and waited for_ hours, and was, in his cwnwords, "as comfortable as could- be," when the noise of someone stealthily approaching in. the darkness gladdened his ears. It was the suspectedi culprit ! As .the detective emerged from his hiding-place the thief caught sight of him, and, shrieking with horror at "the ghost," as he ima,gined him to be, fell on the ground- in a fit. Thieves want good nerves? as well . as detectives. Chief-inspector_Littlechild, one of thebrarest and cleverest of modern detectives, has related a strange nerve-testing ghostly experience he had: He had been summoned into the country to investigate the loss of some family jewels, and' was accommodated in the mansion while he pursued his inquiries. "*~ The mystery of the robbery seemed impenetrable, and one night, when all in. the mansion were asleep, after tossing, in His bed for some time racking his brain for a solution of the mystery,, he at last got up, dressed, and, leaving his, room, stole softly into the gallery upon' which his chamber opened. ' — Never Explained. — All was stilly and the place was dimly, lighted by the rays of the moon. He walked to, a window, and looked out into the grounds, and as 'he looked he saw a. figure — seemingly thai; of a woman — steal from under the shadow of a- great oak, and glide towards another tree, where it disappeared. Almost at the same moment his ears caught what seemed like a stealthy footfall in the gallery, and, hastily drawing himself into shadow, and watching, he marked the figure of a. man gliding along the gallery towards th« door of the- room he had left. He saw the man's face distinctly, and as he passed he noted that he made a queer movement with his hands, as if rubbing something 'off his fingers. Suddenly the figure turned and disappeared 1 . What bearing the strange appearance had upon the case* Littlechild could nev«r discover. No one -similar to the woman's figure was found, and there was no one who bore any resemblance to the phantom the detective . had seen in the gallery. The jewels were later on discovered buried r in a box - in some rubbish. — Againsfthe Assassin's Pistol. — The detective who is employed to guard a person in danger of assassination has " frequently a task imposed upon him which would hardly be agreeable to a nervous person. Detective-sergeant M'lntyre often had such charge* coo Mcd to him.. Among

others^ he had: to watch- over James ' Carey, the miserable wretch, who planned the murders of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr Burke in the Phoenix Park, and. who afterwirds turned informer against the men who acted as his. tools. M'lntyre u ad' a presentiment that Carey -would be shot by some desperate assailant, and the appearance^ of any suspicious-lookipg penson was a signal for M'lntyre to interpose himself between him and his pale, trembling: charge;" All precautions proved vain. Carey- ' fell beneath the revolver, of an assassin. So highly did" Mrs Carey appreciate the. caro M'lntyre had showja for her husbandfs- safety that she bestowed on him his watch, and chain. —With Pockefs Full of Dynamite.— ' ' It was M'lntyre who once, while searching a rubbish heap in jthe,' back, yard of a- house inhabited by a suspected dynamiter, came across some chunks of grey stun: "which? his. keen eye — he- had studied' dipiamite — secognised. He took a cab to the Yard, and- there submitted a- small piece to the examination of Colonel Ma--"'■jenldie, the great expert in 'explosives. "it is- dynamite, certainly," declared theexpert; 'and that piece is enough . to ' destroy the- whole of -us and the building 'in wliich ,we stand? if -it exgloded." "©f coarse/* exclaimed^ MTnfyre, whe | wafe" standing by,, thrusting: his hands into ibis overcoat pocKets, 'Tknew it was. But that is only a bit of it. -My pockets are.^ 1 full of* the* stuff;" and he brought out aya v couple of great handfuls, put them on the table, and dived' into- his pockets for I more. 1 Those, who witnessed the terrible struggle in the dock- of the^ Central GrimiinalrGburt — when, at the termination of thetrial for the Muswell Hill murderers* 'Fowler, tried to» strangle Milsom and hurled himself about the dock, dragging with herculean- strength half a dozen 'warders and' policemen along with him — could, well recognise what a dangerous task the arresting such a criminal mightbe. > it was. effected by two Scotland Yard officers named Marshall and Nutkins, who* had ; tracked the desperadoes to Bath, and to a back room in a certain house. Inside that room, dimly lit by a- little oillamp, the* ruffian Fowler, his accomplice Miloom> and< another man were seated, about 11 o'-cloqk one Sunday night, talking and drinking together, whc« the door was, suddenly thrown open and the detec_tiv«s, who- Bad crept stealthily upstairs* oir tip-toe^ fearful lest any creak* might give warning- of their approach, dashed in. Fowler made a- desperate fight for it, hitting out, scratching, and- biting, and rolling- over and« over on the floor- with? the detective, whose- handa- »rer-e on his -throat. He was only quieted' by a- rap oa the head' with the- butt-end of' a- re--volver; which stunned him. Half the furniture ia the room waa smashed in the melee. ■ One of the most disagreeable- experiences of a Scotland Yard detective was arresting a powerful and desperate criminal - whomt he had ; run down upon the edge of a precipice-. The- man had to be taken or left, and there was no help to be had. He expressed his determination to hurl ' his pursuer over the precipice, and even, if necessary, to go over witli him. Expostulation was useless^ and' the' officer nad. to 'tackle" him. They struggled for sev«' rai minutes together upon the brink of a cliff which threatened' certainf death: to anyone who fell over it, when the "detective at lasfc succeeded in tri^ping'his opponent up on the short, slippery .grass-, and they came to the ground with a" crash. ! The man's leg: was broken in the fall, and" he gave up the fight. — Achieved by Coolness. — Perhaps there may be some species of "divinity that doth hedge" detectives as well as kings to protect them against their enemies and paralyse- them. How- is Jit that some of them can walk calmly and absolutely unarmed info the most dangerous dens^ "of London, crowded with- the most desperate characters, beckon to the man they are in" search of, and lead him off like a lamb, while his associates look scowlingly on, merely muttering oaths between their breath and moving not a finger? "1 suppose it's all coolness, one remarked, to me, as the explanation. ' But how do they keep so "cool"? — Chas. TiDbets, in Cassell's Saturday Journal.