WOMAN'S INFATUATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 278, 3 May 1915, Page 8

WOMAN'S INFATUATION.

" ARREST " OF A FARMER. "THE MAN OF MYSTERY," Christchurch, Saturday. " You are the man of mystery. The police want you." Theso words were used by a. weil-dressed and respectablelooking young woman, aged between 2o and 30, to a middle-aged and astonished farmer, who had come into town on business. He was then just outside the Union Bank of Australia, in Hereford Street. He noticed that the woman had been observing him very closely, but when she addressed him in this terrifying manner, and seized him by the arm, he thought the time for action had come. He got away, and went into the bank, but the woman waited outside. When he appeared again, she at once addressed him in the same words, seized him with a desperate grip, and demanded that he should go with her to the police station. The farmer's explanation and expostulations' were of no avail. The woman was positive that lie was the man of mystery whom the police wanted, and she declined to release him. lie tried to get away by the use of a.Kttle force, but his captor stuck to liim, and he gave up finally. The farmer came to the conclusion that the best thing to do was to go to the police station with the woman, and there obtain release from his embarrassing escort. They walked off together, she with a tight grip on her "man of mystery". The woman took the farmer into the detective office, and informed the staff of the supposed service she had done them in gratituously arresting a "wanted" man. The officers listened to her talc with amazement, and it did not take them long to realise that the farmer, who protested that he had never set eyes on the woman before, was innocent of any offence. The result was that the farmer was liberated, and the young woman detained for medical examination as to her mental state