RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONDON DETECTIVE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3729, 6 February 1891, Page 3

RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONDON DETECTIVE.

(Continued). I then got some assistance and explored burnt block. We turned out some H|fcMyess waifs who had burrowed there for who scurried off into the thankful at not being We searched the whole and found near a door opento the river a brass ear-ring, the which was pulled straight as with wrench. The tide was getting low, and we decided to have the mud dragged. The river police helped us, and we were nearly three hours at the job.. At length we "touched" a heavy find, and slowly brought up the form af a woman. During the search I had imagined that my informant the ragamuffip ivas still slumbering by the fire in the police itSion. but the moment the body was 3fted out I heard a shrill boy's voice from :he burnt'block above us cry out—"That'sflit. That's Poll. I've seen it brought out before in my sleep." The shout came from the ragamuffin, who bad come back from tha station-house and stood looking on for more than an hour. When the body was taken ashore and laid out, the face was so changed that I said decidedly— " That isn't Poll—l'll swear it isn't." Even the ragamuffin stared at it in doubt. There was one brass ear-ring in the left ear matching that which we found in the burnt Mock, and the boy said it was like those .vhich Poll had worn regularly. But the iress was a plain gingham, and the under:lothing a great deal better than Poll could nave afforded to buy. It was at that point :hat I remembered the tatooed initials which had always been so conspicuous across Poll's, breast-bone when-she wore her white dress! The gingham was turned down, and. there were the letters, a? plain as when they ; were; pricked into the" white skin, "Ef.T." There was a bruise on the right eye, which had helped. to make the identification more difficult, and which appeared to have been inflicted by a heavy blow from, a fist: otherwise there were no traces of violence, and death was clearly caused by drowning. I did not expect to find Travers at Ramsgate. When a .man commits - a crime and leaves word that he is ofl to a particular spot, my way is to look-in that place, last,and I generally get the man long before I get to the place he has named. Travers had been seen at Ludgate Hill Station, and the man who saw-him there declared that be had heard him ask for two tickets for Eamsgatc. With these tickets he might stop at any station" nearer London, and I tried all these places first. He was not there. I came to Ramsgate, and there one of the station men remembered, notTravers, but the white dress with pink flounces which had been worn by his companion. They had got out there, then—had they gone further ? L went through the place pretty smartly, knowing it so well and having so many acquaintances there, and in three 'hours- found-out the' lodging occupied by Travers' and his irife. There was no doubt about that; they "were married/ and ; had been for some days. I.was shown into the room they occupied, and found them sittin" at a ■•dinner the delicious scent of which made ' me hungry on the spot.- .Blue Bell sat at the head of the table serving; Travers sat opposite. They. both started: up at the sight of me, and the divider.,fell from the young bride's hands splash' into the soup. Travers" face turned white and sickly, and he flopped down into his' chait almost as quickly as,he had started up:' "Well!" he stuttered out at last.

" I've got a warrant here for your apprehension," I said r quietly, "you're both in it; but the train doesn't go for nigh an hour, ye't, so' you neednit hurry. You won't take five minutes to get your things on, so sit still and finish your dinner; and as I've not- hid a bite since six in the morning I don't mind if I join you." They were quite unable to eat; I had taken all their appetite away, and so I had the dinner nearly all to myself. -I ate heartily, keeping a wary eye on them both, and then Travers found courage to say—- " What's it for? bigamy!" ■' "Bigamy." I answered rather warmly, fixing the coward with a steady look into his eyes. V There can be no bigamy, as you well know, when the first wife is dead before the second is married. Bigamy 1 no, you'd breathe more freely and eat a better dinner if it was only bigamy." I did not say what the crime was, and he did not ask. Blue Bell, after the first fit, seemed to get bolder and more defiant—women always do—but Travers got more feeble every minute, and I had actually to help him to put on his boots and overcoat, his hands trembled so. I called up the man I had brought with me, and, to prevent mistakes, I handcuffed Blue Bell and him together, while I honoured Travers by fastening him to my own wrist. I found the pretty white dress with pink flounces, which Poll had made and worn, hanging behind the bedroom door, and in packing up their things I did not forget to include that. When-we got to the station the first train had gone, and we had a full quarter of an hour to wait, ,We sat on the platform with the handcuffed wrist close down between us so as not to show, and, while seated thus, a hawker came forward and offered us some bootlaces for sale, testing them with his hands and showing how strong a they were. Travers listened impatiently at first, but when the man had done he said, " I'll take them," and tried to bring out a penny with his disengaged hand. His purse, however, happened to be at the other side, and I had to help- him to get the money. I looked down at his bootlaces, and could not help thinking that those he had were quite good enough t<riast him all his time, but I did not care to hurt his feelings by saying so, and the laces were bonght and paid for. When we were in the railway carriage, I loosened his wrist for a little, and he changed the new bootlaces for the old ones. He seemed very much depressed, and never spoke to or looked at Blue Bell. The crime with which they were charged having taken place in the IV. Division, we took them to Upper Thames Street Police Station, where they were locked up for the night in separate cells. Tiavers was locked up just as he stood, and of course took his boots and the hawker's double-strong laces with him. As soon as he was alone, or at least as soon as he could screw up courage for the act, he took off his boots, tied the new laces together, made a running noose of them, £asone end to the grating, and slipped through the noose, and saved the a deal of trouble and expense. Blue BelMirmly declared that she had known nothing of the murder, or indeed of the first wife's existence, and it is possible she spoke the truth, but the circumstances were all against her, and when she was tried at the Old Bailey she received a lifer for her sentence. It was the pink-flounced white dress of poor Poll that fixed that upon her, though it was possible that in wearing it she had simply the dupe of Travers. (To be Continued,)