EXPLOSION AND ROMANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 22, 16 June 1914, Page 7

EXPLOSION AND ROMANCE.

STRANGE STORY OF A £IOOO WEDDING WAGER.

A little stucco cottage on the banks of the Basingstoke Canal, Woking was recently the scene of a terrible explosion, behind which lies one of the most extraordinary stories ever told outside the realms of fiction. A romantic love affair, a wealthy and mysterious "man on the -Stock Excnange" a £IOOO wager with a pretty girl as 1 the prize, and a tale of revenge—these are We principal features of a remaxkaible drama which has nearly ended in tragedy, wrote the Ijondon Express's correspondent under date, April 24. One of the principal actors in it, a young man named Bertram Bond, lies in W'oidng Cottage Hospital suffering from serious injuries through the explosion, which, he declares, was carried out intentionally as an act of revenge against him. The explosion occurred in the small hours of the morning in the kitchen of Iso. 11, Canal Cottages, Boundary Road, Woking, in which at the time where Mrs Bond, a widow, her three sons, inchiding Bertram, the eldest, ft daughter, and Bertram's fiancee, Miss Edith Smith. It was, it is declared, caused by gunpowder. The kitchen, with the sitting room, was completely wrecked,'the doors being smashed and windows blown out, while the roof of the kitchen was lifted nearly a foot, and the walls were cracked. Occupants of the bedrooms upstairs were awakened before the explosion by the smell of burning, and Bertram Bond, who went down to the kitchen to ascertain the cause, received the full force of the explosion, being severely injured , about the face, legs and arms. i An examination of the room showed : distinct traces of gunpowder, and a number of shot-gun cartridges and revolver bullets were also found.

Miss Smitih, who was 1 staying with the family for a few days, was the first to get downstairs after Bertram Bond. She dragged her lover from the burning kitchen at considerable risk to herself, mid thus doubtless saved his life. 'A GIRL'S STORY. Miss Smith, a pretty, fair-fcaded girt, told me her story as follows: "I detected a smell of burning about four o'clock this morning," she said, '"and called out to Mrs Bond that the ihiouse was on fire. I started to go downstairs, and then the explosion occurred.

"i "Immediately afterwards I heard Bertram groaning, and tried to get into the kitchen. The door> however, had beeu wrecked and jambed in to the doorway by ike force of the explosion. "I tarried to the street door, and ran round ilm bade to the gaaxien door of V'.e kitchen. Bertram was lying close to this door, but I could not get it open. I then reached through the window at the side, the glass of which had 'been blown out by the force of the explosion, and caught thlold of Bertram** arm. He was conscious then.

I managed to get his arm round my shoulders, and hailf dragged and half lifted him out of the window. When neighbors carried Bertram away to the hospital lie was not conscious, but before he collapsed he said, 'I know who has done tlhis. He has ruined me for the girl I love.'

He mentioned a name which sounded like tho name of someone he knew on the Stock Exchange. Bertram was employed on the Stock Exchange, and he had told one some months before about a Wager he had made with this man, wihp was very' wealthy. This, man, he said, had ibet £IOOO that Bertram would not marry me in June, and he 'told me the man'&name. I told Bertram he ought not to have anything to do with things like that. I believe that Bertram took my photograph up to the Stock Exchange with, him, and while there he dropped it. This man, so Bertram told me, picked up the photograph, and admired my likeness. It was after that when he made the wager.

"SOMETHING FALLING." Mrs Bond, the mother of Bertram, had an even, stranger story to tell than Miss Smith. She told me that just bofore the explosion she heard the sound of something falling in the kitchen. It sounded, she said, as if a cat had jumped in 'or something had been thrown in through the window.

Hoon afterwards, she heard 'her son go down, and she called out to him to know where he was going. "I can smell burning, mother," he said, "and ;»m going to see what is the matter." Almost immediately afterward there oamo the explosion. "I hurried downstairs," said Mrs. Bond, "Bertram was groaning and muttering to himself. 'I know who lias done this,' he said. 'lt has been done for revenge.' When a doctor was fetchI ed and he examined Bertram's wounds, I he said they had been caused by gunpowder.

"Bertram never i.... tided much of his business with me, but he told me about a wager which had been made ■with him by a man at the Stock Exchange. From what I heard, it did not seem to be an ordinary wager. As I understood it, this wealthy man offered Bertram £IOOO if lie would not marry Miss Smith, but would leave the field dear for himself [ to get the girl. I thought it was an extraordinary story, but Bertram was quite serious

about it. He even said that the .man had offered to provide for myself anil the family, for we were dependant on Bertram to keep the home going. Bertram, of course, scorned the idea, for lie was very fond of Miss Smith, and, in fact, all arrangements had been made for their wedding on June 3."

Tire explosion. It is believed that the explosion emanated from a spot underneath the ocuch in the kitc'h'en. Th.s couoh, wheh was burnt, was later in the day placed in the garden behind the house, with a, number of household articles and books. One of the latter, curiously enough, was a novel entitled, ''The Uncounted Co'st." On enquiry'at tlli'e Woking Cottage! Hospital, I was informed that Bertram ISond was going as well as could he expected, bnt nobody, not even his relatives, could be allowed to see him. The Bond family have been resident, in I Woking for many years, and are vcrv well known, and higlily respected in the neighborhood. The familly are being oared for by friends. It is a simple matter to approach the house from the kick, for a pathwav along the bottom of the gardens ol tile communicating with the street, nmcoltagcs, and there is no fence of «ny kind between the. path and the gardens. When the h.st mail left Home the police were making close enquiries' into the affair."