RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONDON DETECTIVE.-(Concluded.)

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 3 March 1891, Page 4

RECO LL ECTIONS OF A LONDON DE-TECTIVE.-(Concluded.)

£, -. nanied in it ; Dm me train doesn't go lor nigh an hour yet, so you needn't hurry. You won't take five minutes to get your things on, so sit still and finish your dinner , and as I've not had a bite since six in the morning I don't mind if I join you." They were quite unable to cat ; I had taken all their appetite away, and so I had the dinner nearly all to myself. I ate heartily, keeping a wary eye on them both, and then Travers found courage to say — "What's it for? bigamy!" "Bigamy," I answered rather warmly, fixing the coward with a steady look into his eyes. "There can be no bigamy, as you well know, when the first wife is dead before the second is married. Bigamy ! no, you'd breathe more freely and eat a better dinner if it was only bigamy." I did not say what the crime was, and he did not ask. Blue Bell, after the first fit, _ seemed to get bolder and more defiant — women always do — but Travers got more ' feeble every minute, and I had actually to help him to put on his boots and overcoat, his hands trembled so. I called up the man I had brought with me, and, to prevent mistakes, I handcuffed Blue Bell and him together, while I honoured Travers by fastening him to my own wrist. I found the pretty white dress with pink flounces, which Poll had made and worn, hanging behind /the bedroom door, and in packing up their jfthifigs I did not forget to include that. i '■'-. When we got to the station the first train isghad gbnft and we had a full quarter of an •" fiour telwflit. We sat on the platform with the handciifFed wrist close down between us so as not to show, and, while seated thus, a hawker came forward and offered us some bootlaces for sale, testing them with his. hands and showing how strong they were. Travers listened impatiently at first, but when the man had done he said, " I'll take them," and tried to bring out a penny with his disengaged hand. His purse, however, happened to be at the other side, and I had io help him to get the money. I looked down at his bootlaces, and could not help thinking that those he had were quite good enough to last him all his time, but I did not care to hurt his feelings by saying so, and the laces were bought and paid for. When we were in the railway carriage, I loosened his wrist for a little, and he changed the new bootlaces for the old ones. He seemed very much depressed, and never spoke to or looked at Blue Bell. The crime with which they were charged having taken place in the IV. Division, we took them to Upper Thames Street Police Station, where they aj.were locked up for the night in separate cells. Ti avers was locked up just as he stood, and of course took his boots and the hawker's double-strong laces with him. As : soon as he was alone, or at least as soon as he could screw up courage for the act, he took off his boots, tied the new laces together, made a running noose of them, fastened one end to the grating, and slipped his head through the noose, and saved the country a deal of trouble and expense. Blue Bell firmly declared that she had known i nothing of the murder, or indeed of the first wife's existence, and it is possible she spoke the truth, but the circumstances were all her, and when she was tried at the ■Old Bailey she received a lifer for her sentence. • It was the pink-flounced whits dress Koi poor Poll that fixed that upon her, though it was possible that in wearing it she had been simply the dupe of Travers. THE END.