DETECTIVE ROBBED

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 233, 30 March 1912, Page 9

DETECTIVE ROBBED

THE HUMOR OP CRIME. M. Hamard, late Chief of the Paris detective corps, who was at the head of all French detectives outside Paris, has just made an amusing confession of how he was recently outwitted by a criminal whom he had under cross examination. The occasion was a little gathering at which M. Hamard's promotion was celebrated by friends. "Every policeman has been mistaken more than once," said M. Hamard, "and a policeman's mistakes are his best teachers. The man who thinks {hat he is always right, or thinks that he 'connot be blamed for the mistake he has made because . . .' will never do much good. But lam not here to lecture. "We had received information that Arsene Dubois (Dubois will do very well, as there are journalists present) was. the real ring-leader in the burglaries of—let us say, the Rue du Bac;" that he was probably one of the Rue Ordener highwaymen, and that he was a notorious coiner. It appeared to me that a few moments' conversation with Monsieur Dubois (Arsene) might be useful." Two quiet little men sitting in a corner of the room nodded their heads. They remembered arresting Dubois (Arsene). Hp had given some trouble. "Yes," nodded M. Hamard, as though they had spoken out loud, "he was rather a handful. L- has a scar on his hand still where Dubois bit him to the bone. But that is quite irrelevant. "Arsene Dubois, aiter some hesitation, accepted my invitation to a quiet chat". Everybody laughed. "He did not let me do all the talking, though, by any means. I never had to do with such an angry man. I like that, you know. When a man is really angry he lets things slip out which are extremely useful to us.

'"Now,'l said, going straight to the root of the matter at once, 'just tell me where you were when the bank messenger was attacked in the Rue Ordener.' I expected denial, or portest. But Dubois surprised me. 'I was in bed,' he said, 'and my concierge can prove it.' His concierge did prove it. But there , was the coining and there were the burglaries. You know my system. I told him about all the burglaries, made little mistakes in the details, and gave him eevry opportunity of correcting them. ' of correcting them, "Sometimes he did correct me, sometimes he did not, but he did not commit himself at all, and there was nothing like a confession. 'I am beginning to believe that you are innocent, Dubois,' 'Of course I am innocent,' said the man. 'I am as innocent as you are.' 'But,' I asked, 'you know all the details of the Rue Ordener outrage, and you have probably your own theory.' 'Like everybody else,' admitted the man. '"Well, then, suppose you tell me how it happened, according to the theory you have formed.' Dubois shrugged his shoulders. 1 have lost my day's work, anyhow,' he said; 'I may as well amuse you for half an hour more.' "I placed a chair in the middle of the room. 'There,' I said. 'That is the motor car, and my table is the row of shops. lam the bank messenger.' Dubois sat on the chair, jumped from it, pretended to fire at me, and at the same moment whirled me round, so that I very nearly fell in reality. 'That is how it was done, I should think,' he said. "'You must have been there, what-, ever your concierge may say!' I thundered at him. He looked straight back at me and laughed. 'No, no Monsieur Hamard,' he answered, 'your terrible glance is historic. It may frighten confession out of a guilty man, perhaps out of an innocent coward. But lam not afraid. I have only committed one robbery with violence in my life, and I am not in the least ashamed of that.' "Dubois' assurance staggered me. But I would not be satisfied with his answer. It might be cleverness, and I knew that the highwaymen of the Rue Ordener were clever. So I took him through the whole business again from the theft of the motor ear before the crime to the crime itself, from Paris to Dieppe, crossquestioning and contradicting when I thought that I might wrench confession out of him. "I couldn't. He knew nothing about the affair except what he had read iu. the newspapers; he knew nothing about the Rue du Bac burglaries, and he laughed at by accusation of coining. All the time, till it became most irritating, he rang in the refrain about the robbery with violence he had committed a short time ago, which the police had not discovered. At last I pretended to grow very angry with him. 'Look here, Dubois,' I said, 'I allow you a certain amount of freedom here, where we two are alone, because I have my reasons. But you are talking to a magistrate, and by your confession you are a criminal.' 'Yes; but prove it,' said Dubois, quietly. 'Your own confession is sufficient proof,' I said, 'for me to send you to prison.' 'You will not do that,' 'an-, swered Dubois. 'I gave you my word of honor that I had nothing to do with the Rue Ordener crime. I know nothing of the Rue du Bae burglaries. lam not a coiner. I have lived an honest life except on one occasion.' " 'When was that.?' I shouted. I really was losing mv temper. 'Ten minutes ago,' answered Dubois, 'when we were play-acting. I picked your pocket of your watch and chain. Here they are. Will you send me to prison for robbery with violence, M. Hamard? You can prove it now.' "Dubois scored, did he not?" laughed M. Hamard. "But we are watching him carefully still. He is so very clever."