TRICK THAT FAILED

Taranaki Daily News, 6 April 1927, Page 4

TRICK THAT FAILED

PROSPECTIVE VICTIM SCORES. A CANADIAN IN LONDON. Three confidence tricksters are brooding somewhere in London over a coup that failed. A Canadian film producer is chuckling for the same reason, and his chuckles have acquired a certain solidity ■by reason of the two dinners, one lunch, and one breakfast that he has eaten at the tricksters’ expense. Mr. Jean Miller, the film producer, arrived in London from Hollywood. His clothes had a Transatlantic cut. After luncheon he went to a kinema and soon noticed a man in the seat next to him. The man suggested that as Mr. Miller was an American—correct him if he were wrong —he probably found London as wonderful as ho did himself. He was a New Zealander. “The man gave his name as Love,” said Mr. Miller. “We exchanged cigarettes, and he suggested we should dine together. As I had recently directed a film about confidence men I became interested. We had dinner, and the next day he showed me the town, very generously, too. “Then he suggested that, with a friend of his, Mr. Thomas Kelly, of Australia, we should see over Buckingham Palace. We got as far as the British Museum when we overtook an old man who dropped a glove. Kelly picked it up amt handed it back. The upshot was that we all went off to a little restaurant to have a celebration breakfast. “Presently the old man mentioned: ‘I was left £360,000 two months ago.' He pulled out a daily newspaper, giving the name of a Mr. O’Donnell who had come into a legacy. ‘That’s me,’ he said. I had chanced, however, to look at the date of the newspaper, and it was July 15, 1925. “O’Donnell said he was giving £lO,OOO a year away in charity. “Show me you’re a man of means and I’ll trust you with some to be distributed,’ he said. Love went off to his bank and came back with £lOO3 in an envelope. “ ‘Right,’ said O’Donnell, and he pulled out a wallet that was indecently fat with notes. ‘Here’s a thousand for you,’ and he peeled off 20 notes for £5O. “The same thing happened to Kelly, but when it was my turn I just looked at them. ‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself,’ I said to O’Donnell, ‘an old man like you with on© foot in the grave.’ He looked at me and fled. Then Kelly vanished. But I grabbed Love. “ ‘You,’ I said, ‘don’t go till you’ve paid for my breakfast.’ He sighed, and paid. I guess I could teach them something myself.”