A Clever Escape.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 161, 10 December 1872, Page 7

A Clever Escape.

The luangahua Herald relates the following : —lt will be within the recollection of our readers that a man known as (Herman Jerry recently absconded from the employ of a storekeeper named Brandt) at the Landing, with about £33 in cash and gold. A warrant was out for his arrest, and information having been ascertained of his whereabouts, he was arrest ;d by Constable Chichester at I a.m. on Thursday, about two miles above the Lyell, in a hut situated near the Boiler river. Having to cross the river in a small boat the prisoner asked that his handcuffs might be removed, and this was done. Oa reaching mid-stream he suddenly sprang from the boat and dived a distance of -10 yards. The boat followed until near a dangerous fall, and then steered for the bank. Constable Chichester, the arresting oiticer, pursued the prisoner along the river bank, but the latter invariably divtd on perceiving him, and the constable last saw him at the head of the fall, when he dived, and though Constable Chichester had a full view of the river for 120 yards he saw no more of the fugitive. The constable searched the bank of the river, but could discover no trace of him having emerged from the river. Chichester is certain the runaway could not have survived the passage of the fail. Brandt, however, is of opinion Jerry reached the bank in safetv, as he believed that he saw him swim tiling strongly down the fall. The constable’s surmise has proved to be correct, for by a late telegram we see that the body of the daring swimmer has been found some distance below the fall referred to.