BLOODHOUND HUNT IN HAMP SHIRE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1642, 8 January 1913, Page 8

BLOODHOUND HUNT IN HAMP SHIRE.

ARSON SUSPECT PICKED OUT BY DOG DETECTIVES. •With the.aid of bloodhounds the Sus-'police-in.'November effected a', sensational arrest. ' " 1 I'Eor. two'.'year's -past .mysterious fires, believed to be the work of an incendiary, have occurred with .alarming; frequency on the borders of Hampshire and Sussex, | some fifteen miles from Portsmouth. Fire after firo has occurred, and, in spite of the employment of extra police, and night patrols of well-to-do and working-class residents. and , Boy Scouts,' the .cause of the. outbreak, has remained a mystery, j ;On :; soma.'.'occasions.. ricks ; had- blazed .up iri'.the presence of patrols, but no cliie •to the cause-could be found. In all, over a score offires in farm buildings and ricks have occurred, and the loss amounts to 'thousands of pounds. Two outbreaks a month aeo (says the "Daily.News" of November 18) Toused the villagers to a fever pitch of excitement, and professional and private patrols redoubled their vigilance. . "As a result, when a rick burst into flames on Saturday night, and the Emsworth brigade were called .out, 'village patrols hurriedly mode for the scerio. , ' They found themselves forestalled. by tho police, who had formed a cordon round the 1 farm and had put two bloodhounds to work. The hounds at once took up n. trail, and in an hour and a half,had l?d the nolico to th« bank of 'a houso in the village of Westbnurne, where a labourer named Benjamin Chant, a?«l 23, resided. - The police reached . house at 2 o'clock in the morning, and Chant, who was in bod, refused to come downstairs until tho inspector in ohnrgo threatened to force an entrance. Then the man' came down. and was at once nlaced with night other men in the roadway. Tho hounds, which had been removed a quarW. of .a mil© from the house. • wmri then brought up. and unhesitatingly picked Chant out 1 from his companions. Chant, who doclarpi that he was nt home at th* time of the fire, was brought before the Hnvant on a char?* of arson, and, tho notice having stated tho unusual circumstanccs of his arrest, was remanded.