The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1904-02-06

the affair had, as the London and To-
cal papers informed us, created a SEN
satiOn. From them we learnt that
Number Two was right in %supposins
that the information had been laid
hurriedly, and only a short time be.
fore the meeting took place. Late on
the evening in question a letter had
been received at the Marlborough po-
lice station, stating that the writer
was a member of a gang of five crimi-
nails who were to meet that night in a
disused shed in the brick-field close to
the cemetery. The letter then went
on to say that the writer wished to
turn infOrmer, and that if the police
would surround the shed and make
prisoners of those there assembled,
the writer would then make himself
known to the authorities, and would
place at their disposal whatever evil
dence was necessary to procure the
conviction of his ~accomplices.
Under ordinary circumstances the
police would have treated the letter as
a Joke, and either taken no action. or
sent, perhaps, a single constable to
inspect the shed. But since the dis
cOvery of dynamite at Fassett Square,
and the subsequent murder of the care
taker, the authorities at New Scotland
yard had instructed the provincial po>
lice that there was reason to believe
some t%TeasonOus plot was Matching.
and that a sharp eye was everywhere
to be kept upon suspicious strangers.
Hence the Marlborough police SUPER
intendent had decided to act upon the
assumption that the letter was genu-
inc. n had mustered the entire
strength of the local constabulary to
effect an arrest.
The newspaper account then went on
to say that the police had arrived at
the shed, only to discover that the
birds had flown; for, with the excep-
ton of the informer, who was impa-
tiently awaiting them, they had found
the place empty.
This, | may remark in parenthesis.
was a touch of that adroit Official
garbling Of reports or Of evidence with
which the country-and. | fear. some
times the town-pOliceman, who is
more anxious to make out a case for
and to convict somebody than
10 see justice done, cOntrives to keen
his own blunder OF oversight from
to light. AS a matter of fact.
the reader knows, the police did not
find the shed empty" for the very
good reason that they had not looked
to see If any one were there, but had
let themselves be hustled off in pur-
suit Of the supposed runaways.
So far as one could judge from the
newspaper report, no suspicion that
the police had been sent off on a Wild
chase had occurred to them,
They accounted for the fact that thew
lad beer unable to find any trace of
the TOUR men or of the trap by he
-heory That the conspirators, suspect.
That they had been betrayed. had
lrlVen a short distance away. and had
men returned to the shed to be re-
'ensed upon the ~betrayer. This the
Dry was supported by the circumstance
MAI the dead bodies of a person whom
ne police apparently took to be the
htormer, as well as OF the constable
Il whose charge he had been left, were
ound lying together within the shed
>o mention was made in any newspa.
'er report of the fact that. though
lTeSsed as a man, the dead informer
vas in reality a woman; so it is to be
resumed that the police had some rea,
Tor wishing the secret of the in.
sex to be suppressed.
Mr.. Hall. though a scoundrel. was
am bound to confess, q hospitable
.coundrel, and made the three of us
Four, Number Six and mvsell
the so-called Number Seyen). whc
'lth himself now constituted the coun.
comfortable during our IN.
breed stay at Heath Cottage, as hi,
ONE was named. 1t was a two-storied
ouse, but Hall had transformed tha
Immediately under the roof into
n eccentric, but by no means uncosy
partment, which reminded me of i
between a barn loft and a bill.
ard-room.
ITO Be Continued