WAR NOTES

Taihape Daily Times, 15 October 1917, Page 3

WAR NOTES

THE MISSING "E." DETECTIVE'S DISCOVERY FUGITIVE'S FATE SEALED. A missing letter "e" led to the capture of Lieutenant Arped Horn, the Austrian officer who escaped from internment at Donington Hall. He got out of the prison camp by the simple ruse of hiding in a hole — made for draining purposes in the day compound—when the prisoners went in for the night, trusting that he and two fellow-fugitives would not be missed until evening roll-call. Two of them were caught amost at once, but Lieut. Horn succeeded in reaching London—still clad in his grey uniform. He then calmly went into a tailor's shop i and stated that he was a Servian officer His tale was believed and he obtained a suit of mufti. British detectives, however, are not easily baffled. Scotland Yard men found he -had reached London, but knew nothing of his whereabouts, and it was, decided to scrutinise the register of every hotel. A missing "e" sealed the fate of the fugitive, for in one hotel book an ordinary English surname was found prefaced by the name of "Georg"— which is the German fashion of spelling "George." The detectives determined to see "Georg," and waited in his room, meeting him on his return from a theatre he had been visiting. They were not disappointed for he was the wanted man. One of the most amusing points of the story is the way in which the Austrian took his defeat. Smiling, he greeted his captors, saying that he could not possibly have got home to Austria, and, as he had exhausted his funds, he was about to give himself up in any case. "I have had a splendid time," he remarked, "and have visited many theatres and restaurants." He appears to have regarded his temporary absence from Efyiinerton Hall as a kind of leave or holiday.