LITERATURE.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1134, 4 January 1884, Page 4

LITERATURE.

AN EXPENSIVE PRESCRIPTION“I WISH I'D KNOWED LATIN*”,-, ( Continued .) ' I was off with a run as I uttered the orders, and.darted out,at the top of t ( he just a? the crash inwards of the door before' McSweeny’s heavy frame reached my ears. ■ I was just in time to ■ ■ ; We’ ; Piko turning tlic cornbr of North ’’College street to go south, and I did n6t .agaiii, lose sight of ' him , till he bntered the gartlen-galc of Mr Brown-' ipgs’ s .house, vvhieh b? opened .boldly as if it had been liis.own. l' allowed hpn. , tQ. enter, iirotieed ;that: her did not lock • -the gate after passing within, and then, allowing him free range of the premises ■ quietly Wailed for my comrades; In lialf-an-honr a cab dashed up to the ; spot, from which dcs-cnded 1 McSwoeny : and his assistants with the released prisoner, Mr Brownings. ‘We opened the garden ; gate, passed up the walk, entered the house by the front door, and then con- ’ fronted Pike ih the act of tying n[» a quantity of silver plate in a tabb>-cloth, lot; fcqiiyenienco in removal. As he was pdnnced upon by the men and handcuffed, I thought he was petrified at beholding or possibly recognising me ; . j bntj •following the direction of his protruding eyes, I saw that they, were ohiiined to the smiting and triumphant face of his laic prisoner. ‘My God ! how the blank did you get here ? ’ whs all he could gasp out. ‘ Ho had left the man entombed, as ho thought, without the possibility of communicating with any phe, and there ho was before, him smiling, and surrounded with policeofficers, with .their respective positions suddenlyjand magically inverted. That was; what staggered and astounded him so much that he scarcely thonght’of the fact 'that ho was' in our . hands, and booked for a heavy sentence; that was what sealed his lips and made him stare about him dazed and stupid-looking, ns , a man jtisl awakened In in a dream. At tlic office, when wo entered, some • one said to me— ‘ Where have you been ?’ to which I answered—‘l’ve been fishing, and have just landed a beautiful Pike;’ whereas sweet William scowled like "a bandit, and looked as if he could have struck mo if his hands hadn’t been fastened, and he hadn’t been a great.coward. His cleverrncsa got him seven years, and his wife five, and the way they both swore under their breath at the trial when the expensive prescription was explained and translated was a pleasure to behold, Pike, ns he was led down stairs, continued to swear, and repeat pathetically ns a refrain— * I wish I’d knowed Latin ; I’d have .did the blank, blanks I I’d have did them !’—From “Strange Clues,’’ an interesting volume of Detective Stories, published by Simpkiu, Marshall, and Co., London. ( Concluded .)