The morning times., 1896-12-06

to come round to my point OF view wheh l
suddenly exclaimed:
Look out. mate; there's block at
Petersfield."
The distant signal was shining with a red
light instead of a green and We put ON the
t-ntes Until the train was almost at u
stendstill.
..For Gods sake, let me get off, begged
the stranger.
MY mate and looked at one another.
The train came to u stop close to the sig
nal
Don't refuse me. See here,' and he
held out five sovereigns and literally pressed
them into my hand. l looked at Jim again.
He nodded.
IAN right, get off and keep quiettill we've
gone on. Good luck to you. Here, don't
want your money.
But he was gone in moment. Then the
semaphore arm fell with crash, the green
light shone out, and we started once again;
nor did we stop till we had reached Ports
mouth. Later OH my mate and 1 talked
the matter over between us, and agreed
that we would not mention it to anyone,
as it was better for all that it should be
kept quiet. Then l offered him half the
money.
No" said he, 'I won't take it. II his
story's true, it's something like the price
of blood. They must have given him the
cash for his Journey and expenses"
! hadn't seen 1t in that light.
We'll, mate, l believe you're right. I
never thought OF that. I shan't touch ii
either; ! couldn't bring myself to doit. But
what shall we do with it,
Finally, weagrecd to send anonymously
TO a railway charity, a nd the next morning
! we did SO.
Two days after that, / was Offduty, when
| the fireman came round to my house With
hi r., nd n .
| paper in his hand. Real that, he said
quickly, pointing to n paragraph. read as
| follows:
"MYSTERIOUs DISAPPEARANCE OF A
CRIMINAL"
ION Thursday evening last strange
| occurrence, the facts OF which are unknown
must have taken place somewhere on tht
| main line of the Southwestern Railway be
| tween Waterloo and Basingstoke. Our
| readers will rem ember the case OF
embezzlement and forgery at the
| head offices of the Amalgamated Gen
eral European and Colonial Exchange q
aforgery Oh a large scale, in which the undei
! cashier, Charles winfield, clever aud un
| fortunately weil-trusted young man. was
| deeply implicated. Winfield, by some
| means, managed TO escape arrest, and the
police have been assidr olsiy following his
| track since On the evening in question
| Detective Baxter of Scotland Yard recoe
niZed Winfield in fiIst-clasS cUmpart
| :uent of the 8: 35 oat-train from Waterloo
TO Southampton. The train was Just NOV
ing out of the station, and II was impossible
for hedetcctivc to get in, buthc ran along
the platform by the side of the window
clearly idneiificd his man, to ok the nun
Ter of he carriage, and l. oticcd which com
partncnt it was, and Immediately wiret
TO BasngstoIe, the first stopping place
When however, the train arrived at thl
place, the police, who had assembled on tn
platform, found TO trace, of the criminal
1t was ascertained that the train had no
pulled up once; the particular compartment
wasempty, but Il thor oarh search was mad
| throughout the train, il being thought tina
he might have changed carriages by tn
ooS board. 1t is supposed that Winfield
recognized the fact that he had been lis
covered at the last II omcnt on his way Il
the continent, and guessing that he woul
lie arrested at Basinestokc, must hav
| jumped off the train i'll Il II. oment of desrera
ton. Whether the unhappy man was kille'
or escaped remains mystery, 10 trace o
| him having been discovered
what do you think Of that said m
mate.
"well,"I said, II think he half deserve
10 escape on account of his pluck. And
well, he was the finest liar I've ever met!
The fireman nodded his head slowly, an
then said:
We'll. l had my doubts II ost Of the time
He was tCo fine u liar for me:'