A Christmas Eve Prank.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7703, 4 January 1905, Page 4

A Christmas Eve Prank.

- «—. Fr»m the New Zealand Times:— An extraordinary story comes from , the country. It appears that late on Christmas Eve, according to information given to the police, a young man discovered a man getting through the window of the room in which the wife of his i employer slept. The employee slipped back into the whare in which he slept, and loaded his revolver. Stealing back he challenged the intruder, who 4hereupon fired at him, and put a bullet through his shirt and the flesh of his arm. After that the ->toangcr decamped. The police were informed, and were given to understand hy the employee that the man who had tried to get into the window was a local man. Two detectives wont t« the scene, and as a result of their investigations discovered that the man alleged to iave attempted to enter the window on Christmas Eve had been in another district that night. This was Iroyond a doubt. Then they investigated closer, and found that the shirt of the employee had been singed where the bulled had pierced. Now, the employee had said 'that the man . who had fired at him had been nine yards away—he had gone so !ur ns to point out the exact distance, the ~"exact spots in the incident. Filled ~ with suspicion of a hoax, the detectives went back to the employee and extracted a confession from him that fired the revolver at,.hifiiseir, > ' witKtße-snlention of,-putting a bul'2 let through hisTsnTrt sleeve, but had clumsily jut it through the flesh of his arm ; and that there had been no attempt to enter any window on \ the premises.. The object of all this performance is not quite clear.