STORY OF A DETECTIVE.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12467, 17 February 1909, Page 4

STORY OF A DETECTIVE.

1 A writer in the .London "Times" < gives a striking 'instance ••. of a detec-. tive's uersonal. power. , An -officer in plain clothes ; wasvtold , by a 'woman he , had befriended that a' gang of noton- , ous burglars ; were --holding -, a .meeting J at a : certain rendezvous -to;, divide up j a great haul of stolen: property.'. There { was no tiine to : communicate with his ; comrades';he' had either, to. go to. the 1 place and fsce ten or more desperate r characters alone, and trust to his in- ; formant giving the alarm at the near- j est police stationy or risk missing an { opporunity that. might ■/ never:- -occur: again. For all he knew it might be £ a.' well baited trap. ; Ile^resDlredy^ s rsk his Ufa and hastened to-the place. ( On the way he was lucky enough to } meet two constables in^iiif orm, r whom ; he took with him. :. When the door ( of the house .was . opened. ,to him he . j found himself confronted^^welve_.of - x the worst cracksmen m London. ;_e- f fore they had time to, recover. :frpm : a their astonishment a constable .haa j taken up his sUncLbefore eack of the doors of the- roomy and .then the de- ; ' tective cooly told them thaUhe game : that the.best )mj^% { could do was to make no trouble.- It . was acritical moment. Three of the. -} Smihal put their- hands into their pockets in which revolvers weje afterwards found and the issue oftEe fight fl would hiive been certain. , But under .* tor eye of the detective,' who knew I bhem lll -the jngp lost their nerve and permitted their captorstQ .ho.ia.^them ._■ without- the -slightest, trouble until re? J . inforCements arrived -fiQm.the pohcegtation. Success : in detecting a crime often depends far more upon knowledge of.vthe whereabout of pro> ' Sessional criminals than upon the . gvir ! Jehce. gained oh tne* spoty '"yyyi