THE DETECTIVE'S STORY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 749, 25 August 1876, Page 3

THE DETECTIVE'S STORY.

It was a most complicated affair, but I wasn’t afraid of getting at the bottom of it. I’ve been mixed up in some rum cases in my time, and I’m free to confess that this was a teaser. Old gentleman knocked down and robbed of a bottle of Exerygnosphotyrchnos and a two-shilling piece with a hole in it in broad moon-light on Hampstead Heath. And no trace of the thief. It was a lucky thing he came to me about it private. If he’d gone to the station they’d either a’ told him he was drunk and incapable, or put him under police supervision for three years. “ Should he know the thief again if he saw him ?” “No, he was dreaming of his youth fat the time, and wasn’t noticing.” “Could he give me any clue?” “Yes, it was raining at the time, and whoever was on the heath must have got his boots wet.” “ All right, he might leave the rest to me which he did, and half a sovereign on account. Brilliant ideas are common as blackberries in dune to detectives. I’m no exception to the rule, and mice came to me that night over a pipe and half-a-go. The next day the wallsbf London were placarded with an announcement of a monster Spelling Bee at Hamstead for a fortnight after date. The eventful evening arrived, and, disguised as an interrogator, I took my seat upon the platform. The hall was crowded, the competitors numerous. My practised eye perused their faces, and speedily separated the undoubtedly innocent from the possibly guilty. I singled out a young man directly, and fed him artfully with a Scotland-yard glare, and suddenly asked him to spell Exerygnosphotyrchnos. He never changed color, he never flinched, but just spelt it off without a falter When he had finished 1 stepped to the front and exclaimed, “ Ladies and gentlemen, it is my painful duty to interrupt these proceedings by taking this person into custody on a charge of robbery from the person committed on Hampstead Heath a fortnight since.” Then I marched him off to the station and charged him. “Inspector,”! said, giving my chief the technical details, “ I shall charge this man, because if he hadn’t had the bottle of stuff with the long name in possession he couldn’t have spelt it ” “ Quite right said the inspector you are an intelligent and active officer. “ Quite right!’’ said the prisoner; “you’re a fool. Of course I can spell it because I sell it, and the old gentleman who was robbed bought it at my shop,” which he subsequently proved. But for all that Ido maintain two things. That my idea was a brilliant one, and that Spelling Bees ain’t to be relied upon where circumstantial evidence is required. There’s my card, sir, and if ever you want activity and intelligence at a moderate cost, come to me private.