HONOUR AMONG THIEVES. Two Stories Told at an Officers' Mess.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 88, 7 February 1885, Page 4

HONOUR AMONG THIEVES. Two Stories Told at an Officers' Mess.

A quiet old gentleman, a civilian, of about sixty years of age, entered into conversation with me across the table. After a little palaver upon a variety of subjects we began to talk about robberies and other adventure? on the road. He seemed to have studied the " Newgate Calendar" with the greatest attention, and knew the names and offences of every poor devil that had danced upon nothing for the last hundred years. I began to fancy, at last, I had got into conversation with Mr Wontner, at the least, if not with Jack Ketch himself. There was one story he told me, which he took his oath was by no means a lie— if it was, tuat is his business, not mine " About thirty years ago," he said, "my friend Mr B having at that time newly commenced business in Edinburgh, was returning on horseback from the city to a cottage he had near Grammond When he had proceeded about three miles trom the town, and had come to the loneliest part of the way, he was suddenly arrested by a man who sprung out of a small copse and seized the biidle of his hor.-e. Mr B was a man of great calmness and resolution, and asked the man tiie reason of his behaviour without betraying the smallest symptom of agitation. Mot so the a-sailant. He held the bridle in his hand, bur Mr B remarked that it trembled excessively. " After remaining some time, as if irresolute what to do, and without uttering a word, he let go his hold of the rein, and said in a trembling voice, ' Pass on, sir, pass on ; ' and then be added, ' I thank God I am yet free from crime ' "Mr B was struck with the manner and appearance of the man, and (•aid, 'I fear you are in distress -is there anything in which a stranger can assist you?' "•Strangers may, perhaps,' replied the man in a bitter tone, ' for nothing is to be hoped for from friends.' "'You speak, I hope, under some momentary feeling of disappointment.' "'Pass on, pass on!" he said impatiently ; * I have no right to utter any complaints to you. Go home and thank God that a better spirit withheld me from my first intention when I heard you approach, or this might have been ' He suddenly paused. "'Stranger,' said Mr 8., in a tone of real kindness, 'you say you have no right to utter your complaints to me. I certainly have no right to pry into your concerns but I am interested, I confess, by your manner and appearance, and I frankly make you an offer of any assistance I can bestow.' " ♦ You know not, sir, the person to whom you make so generous a proposal— -a wretch stained with vices degraded from the station he once held, and on the eve of becoming a robber — aye !' he added, * perhaps a murderer.' '• * I care not, I care not, for your former crimes — sufficient for me that you repent them. Tell me wherein I can stand your friend.'

" * For myself, I am careless,' replied the man, ' bub there is one who looks to me with eyes of quiet and still unchanged affection, though she knows I have brought her frum a home of comfort to share the fate of an outcast and a beggar. I wished, for her sake, to become once more respeotible, to leave a country where 1 am known, and to gain character, station, wealth — to all which she is so justly entitled— in a foreign land j but I have not a shilling in the world ' " Here he paused, and Mr B. thought he saw him weep. He drew out his pocketbook, and, unfolding a Bank bill, he put it in the man's hand, and said, ' Here i-> what I hope will ease you from present difficulties- it is a note for £100.' " The man started as he received the paper, and said, in a subdued tone, '1 will not attempt to thank you, sir may I ask your name andaddre^?' Mr B gave him what he required. 'Farewell, sir,' said the stranger, ' when I have expiated my faults by a lite of honosty I will pray for you ; till then— l dare not.' baying these words he bounded over the edge and disappeared. Mr B. rode home, wondering at the occurrence, and he has often said since that he never derived so much pleasure from a hundred pounds in his life. *' One day, about twelve years after the adventure, he was sitting with a few friends after dinner when a note was put into his hand, and the t-ervant told him that the Leith carrier had bi ought a hogshead of claret into the hail. Be opened the note, and found it to contain an order for £100 with interest up to that time, accompanied with the strongest expressions of gratitude tor the service done to the writer long ago. It had no date, but informed him that he was happy, that he was respected, and that he was admitted partner of one of the finest mercantile houses in the city where he lived. Fvery year the same present was continued. The wine, as I have good reason to know, was of the finest, for many a pood magrnum of it I have drunk at the hospitable table of my friend." " And a very gentlemanly proper sort of robber,uponmy life," said Colonel O'Looney. II T' would have been a pity to hang such a good judge of claret. Now, the London rogue 5 " are very different. I was walking one day down into the city an I stopped for a moment to look at some pictures in a window in St. Paul's Churchyard. Before I had \ime to say Jack Robinson, half-a-dozen fellows kept pushing close around me, and at last I felt a little tug at my pocket, and discovered that my purse had disappeared like lightning. I seized on the fellow who was standing next me, and intended at all events to have the pleasure of breaking every bone in his skin for my money, when a very genteel looking young tellow came up, and says he, " You've sustained some loss, I fear, sir." " Loss !" says I, "to be sure I have ; and this little owld rascal here denies he has got my purse, though he has been close to my pocket this last quarter of an hour." " ' May I beg,' says the gentleman again, ' may I beg to inquire if your loss is very serious V "'Faith, it's more than I can afford, especially for so little satisfaction as only thrashing this little owld thief here.' " ' How much may I ask, sir? I assure you I am deepiy interested in your misfortune.' " 'Why, then, there was exactly fourteen sovereigns in gold, and a ten pound Bank of England note.' '•'Are you aware of the number of the note, so as to stop it at the Bank ?' " ' Not I,' paid L, ' I shouldn't know the note from Adam.' '• ' Then, sir,' replied my compassionate friend, 'I am very much obliged to you for your information, for that rascal, Jim Craggs, that forked your ely, swore there was nothing but five sovereigns. There are three of us in the lay, and it's just eight pounds a piece ' " Before I had time to double my fist and knock bis brains out on the spot, he had disappeared up some dark alley In the meanwhile a great crowd had collected, and the man I had seized by the collar waited very patiently till he saw a policeman, and immediately gave me in charge for an assault. On looking at the man, he really seemed a very respectable sort of person, and I was sorry for having mistaken him for the thief. I apologised to him as well as I could, and offered him any compensation he chose. He swore it was a hard thing for a gentleman, although reduced in circumstances, to be accused of robbery on the public streets, but at la-t consented to accept a douceur of £20. Luckily, I was known at •i shop in the neighbourhood, where I went and borrowed the requia'te funds The moment he had got the money into his hands he said, ' Now, don't you go telling Bill Filch or Jim Scraggs about thi? here trifle, as it's quite a private transaction 'tween ourselves ; but I must be off for my share of the twenty four. Good-bye.' So that the three gentlemen made a very good thing of it, though the villains have never thought of making up for it by the smallest present." ,