PLANS GO ASTRAY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 359, 21 October 1932, Page 3

PLANS GO ASTRAY

FRUITLESS COURAGE CHRISTCHURCH BUSINESSMAN'S ENTHUSIASM TESTED. TACKLING NIGHT PROWLERS. " " , Christchurch, Saturday. These things are sent to try us, of course — but it does seem a pity that so courageous and d'eeplaid a scheme r had to come unstuck — though in the more thoughtful mood induced by a damply depressing morning, the Christchurch land agent who was all two-fisted last night wonders whether things do- not perhaps work together for. ultimate ' good. What happen'ed in the afternoon undoubtedly had a good deal to do with it. . This land agent, yesterday afternoon, had a policeman in his Hereford Street auction-room, and they were discussing the current series of burglaries. "Well," said the land agent, "they haven't troubled me yet, though they've had a go at some other • agents." The policeman, evidently a wellintenti'oned fellow, advised the land ' agent to touch wood. "Ha! ha!" said the land agent jovially. Then there is a gap until: 10.30 p m. 01* thereabouts. Moonlight . . . stillness' . . . land agent heading for his Riccarton home with pleasant memories of a pleasant evening spent with pleasant croni'es at pleasant club. Then fate delivered one of those short-arm jahs. The land agent, pulling up at his gate, heard his Alsations barldng as only startled Alsations can bark. Bounding from the car, the land agent saw two bicycles propped up against his fence. "Great Scot (01* words to that effect), they're here!" he gasped, his mind flashing back to the conversation of the afternoon. But was the man dismayed? Not he! Assuring himself that the best thing to do before actually taekling night prowlers was to disconcert them, take a wallop1 at their morale, he determined to cut off their line of retreat. No sooner thought than done. He seized the first bicycle, dumped it over the neighbour's fence, and was about to lay hands on the seeona bicycle when in the moonlight there loomed up a massive form — a very massive form. "Hey!" observed the massive form, and its tone was not exactly chatty, "what d'you think you're doing with that bike?" "Who are you?" demanded the land •agent, menacingly — at least, he says this morning that he said it menacingly last night. "I belong to the Police Force — who are you?" Something seemed to tell the land agent that plans were performing their well-known feat of going agley. Instead of striking a blow — metjaphorieally speaking, of course — in the rear 'to a brace of burglars, ,he had very nearly thrown a spanner into the worics of Law and Order. He explain'ed to-day that he had not really thought far beyond the hiding of the bicycles, but had nourished _ some expectation of demonstrating to the burglars what can be done by a combination of A1 Karasick and Primo Carnera in a bad mood. And here . . . well, here were two polieemen who had merely been looking round his grounds for some trace of a suspicious character, earlier seen in the neighbourhood, who had disappeared nearby. You never know, in this life, what is waiting for you around the corner, do you?