ELUSIVE VISITORS

Taranaki Daily News, 19 August 1935, Page 8

ELUSIVE VISITORS

PROWLING STORMBIRDS STRANGE HAPPENINGS IN DARK WHAT WAS IT ALL ABOUT? While the storm of Friday night was . raging to a climax of hail and wind a Stratford resident, with feelings rising in inverse ratio to the icy temperature, was dodging hither and thither about his lawn and gardens anxiously pursuing strange sounds, rustlings of the shrubberies not made by the elements, voices that were heard yet could not be located, arid footsteps that echoed on the concrete paths. Rain descended fiercely, and great gusts of wind almost lifted him from his path, ' yet he persevered in his elusive search and. ultimately his endeavours were, in ? a measure, rewarded. About 8 o’clock a knock at the door called him from a cosy fireside. A man, wet but apparently sober, inquired haltingly,, and in a mysterious, uncertain manner whether a certain named person boarded or had rooms at the house. The reply was definitely in the negative, and the caller disappeared into the swirl of the storm without another word. Twenty minutes later the resident distinctly heard the sound of heavy footsteps crossing a ’ small concrete yard between his house and his workshop. Dashing out he dimly saw the figures of a man and a woman making towards a small gate leading to the rear entrance to his property. He gave chase immediately but lost time in reopening the gate, which closed with a spring, and reached the street access some distance behind the intruders, who were seen disappearing in haste. Returning to the house the resident stumbled over an object which rolled with the play of the wind now to port and now to . starboard in a manner most discon- * certing to groping fingers, but was fin- ' ally pounced upon at a moment of rest. It proved to be an almost _ empty beer bottle evidently dropped by the fleeing pair of intruders. Cold and wet, the householder became bitterly conscious that the amount’ of liquor in the bottle was considerably less than his need. He was about to continue when a piercing scream rang out from the house and the voice of his wife was recognised calling for help as someone was sneaking round the front door. The resident shifted his grasp to the neck of the bottle and raced to the scene of fresh activity. As he splashed round the comer of the house he discerned a dun form making for the front gate, and as he looked the form passed'through the gate at a run. Guessing that the man would turn the street comer the resident, ,by now thoroughly angry and completely mystified, dashed off once more for the back entrance, still gripping the beer, bottle. Here he spent a tense moment crouching by the gate, while through the storm was bom the sound of a man’s steps rapidly approaching. A spring was made, a scuffle ensued. There were noises of conflict and laboured breathing. The man resisted, but the householder, thrice arm-, ed in a quarrel just, and, moreover, bursting with indignation, speedily reduced the resistance to passive captivity—and then the man calmly said he. was a fel- •. low citizen delayed by the weather but now on his way home.

Questions were shouted and answers » were given. At last the Indian death lock was released and the man was allowed to proceed about his business while the resident, only partially convinced and more mystified than ever, found a watery, gusty passage back to warmth suid a change of clothing.