The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1897-01-08
THE INSPECTORS LOSS.

wears iIl the detective force. and his col
leagues were entertaining ham at lat
tie farewell dinner, in anticipation 81
his forthcoming retirement i he c.laIr-
man having eulogiZed the gueS5 al The
evening to an extent that brought
blush to the face of that case-hai dened
officer. the Inspector rose to reply, and
at the finish he sad:
The chairman has said that | never
let 4 man slip through nay fingers after
l had once got ON his truck. hut am
sorry To say he is wrong. | ann bound
to acknowledge that once IN offender
was TOO clever for me-.
Tell us about it," arose spnntan"-
oJisly from almost every throat. and In
spector Hookyer, in response to the re-
guest. gave the story:
lit was Il good many years ago now
when | had intruSted to me a case of u
young " Oh. n named Eliza ThickbroOm,
VINO had been found dead evidently
murdered by having her throat cutD in
some fields ad joining the canal near Il
town in Lancashire. She had been Il do
mestic servant and was of very re-
firing. staid disposition. and bore al
irreproachable character. Her friends
lived in quite another part of the conn
try. and her mistress had no int.Nleolgr
of her keeping com 3any o.. anything of
that kind. For some t-rc l had con
siderable difficulty in fiNinsc the crime
or any reason for II upon anyone; but
at last. after lot of inquiry. | ascer-
tanned that she had been walking cut
with Il man named lamprey, who lived
near Stockport, in Cheshire. some 30
miles from where Eliza Thicl,broom re
sided
1t seemed that the girl had been IN
the habit of spending her holiday. " hen
she had a day of. in going TO Stock
port, where Iamprey met her. and that
she had become cr-a%rd Ia him, but
that. hearing something IC. his diScred-
it. she refused To have anything more
to do with him, and. 50 far, nothing fur
ther was known TO impliczite IampreV
in the crime: but |. of course. al once
took the train to Stockport and pro
ceetled To hunt up LampreY and To
make Inquiries in the town where hc
resided
Il knew nothing about him except
his name. but from the local Poliee and
cautious questions of one another !
ascertained that he had been a sailor
and was then a 'steeple-jack, and one
of the best climbers known
Jack Lampreyi' cried one man 10
whom had spoken. All. he can cl nh,
for sure. can Jack, Why. hc climbed up
to the very top of yon steeple' tpoirtin"
to the church hard by. which had a
spire remarkably tall and slender. and
very hard to moun:). After the storm
had damaged the weathercock. Jack
climbed up and fixed ii all alone for the
parson. and he refused to bc paid for 1T
The mln seemed tn look upon lam
prcy's refusing payment as more woE-
dcrful than his climbing the stccFle-
and perhaps he WAS right We'll. h
by bit found little things which. when
pieced together. pointed unmiSTalSahly
to Jack Lamprey as the murderer He
Lad until recently. been seen frequent
ly in and about Stockport with the
girl but for the last two or three
months she had not been observed in
his company. He had been n jolly sort
of fellow. but since the girl had ceased
her visits ii had been noticed that he
had become moody and silent. and he
had taken TO drink 4 GOOD deal. al
though he had previously beeD a most
ahstcmious man.
the night of the murder. and on his re
turn early the next day he WAS travel
stained, as if he had walked long way
His Iandlady remembered that he told
her he had fallen down in some chem
ical works where he had been on job
and had stained his clothes. and she rec
objected that Immediately after his ar
rival home he had busted himself brush
There WAS sufficient evidence to jus
tirv me in obfainin" 4 warrant: but he
was away on a iob-no one knew where,
exactly. except that ii was somewhere
near Liverpool-and il was useless for
me to leave Stock port. where had the
best chance of catching him. on a wild
goose chase 10 Liverpool without bet
ter information. My only course Wa:
to wait and keep quiet till he cam'
back. which he was expected 10 do tn,
following day
II took every precaution 10 prevent
anyone knowing that he was wanted.
but some pal must have got to Suspec
it and given him warning. The police
i'm Liverpool had been wired to and
had kept watch of all trains in the di-
,, rection of Stockport, and towards tho
evening of the second day | received
the intimation that man resembling
! his description had taken the trair
and was on his way. Assisted by local
detective who knew the man, | watched
every passenger out of the train on it
arrival at Stockport. but no Jack Lam
prey alighted. and. on inguiring of the
guard, il seemed pretty certain that M
had got out al ChecIdle. station a few
miles outside Stockport.
at was the beginning of winter and
right had set in. so that il was extreme
IN doubtful if we could follow the man.
hut we took train which was just go
ing out of the station. and in a few
minutes were at Chcadle- | there made
certain that my man had got out lie
had booked for Stockport and had given
up his ticket: but do all we could. We
could get no trace of him. He had left
the station Immediately on leaving the
! train: no one knew him, and we could
find no one TO tell ms anything more s..
hoping perhaps to pick up n clew on the
road. we walked back to Stockport and
on to the town where he lived. which
was n few miles the other side. but our
tramp was in vain.
1--WE had left Instructions at Stock
port for Lamprey's lodgings to L.
watched: but by some blunder a man
had not been sent there for some tine,
and much To my anger and DISCUS. when
l arrived at his house l found that lac
bad been there. Just fer five minutes.
his landlady said. and had left again
with n bag of clothes.
Il was nightly savage. you NAV
guess, both with myself and with the