The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1904-11-04

perusing, but nothing much had hap
pened in the eight days during which
we had been lost to the world. A few
lines in Canadian paper said that the
murderer had been tracked to Liver
pool, but we knew that much already
and thought that we knew a great deal
more.
The captain wanted to put a couple
of stowaways ashore by the pilot boat,
one of them being the refractory stok-
er, but Smith made such an uproar
about this, vowing that he would go
with his friend and would write to the
papers, so that the 'old man" weakly
gave in, and started again for Quebec.
Some limited that the captain did not
want to lose Smith and the possible re-
ward for the detection of the murderer.
We reached Quebec late at night
and a cold night at that. The stow
Always were at once ordered on shore
and again Smith raised hubbub
about such cruelty. ''Well, anyhow,
if the stoker must go then he would go
with him and he should have his top
coat" We watched the strange cou-
pie go down the gangway arm and
arm, and an out-and-out pair of rascals
they looked "But Smith must be the
was muttering, when, hullo! what is
happenings scuffle on the wharf
and several loafers there are all grab
bling the stoker at once, while Smith
stands aside from his quondam friend
and coolly lights cigarette, smile
of quiet triumph the while spreading
over his face and chasing away from it
the rascally hang-dog look which it had
worn for days.
We watched the stoker dragged,
struggling and horror stricken, to
police van which was waiting near by,
and then Smith, heaving what looked
like sigh of contented relief, stepped
smiling up the gangway again into
our midst.
He made straight for the captain,
who stood as one dazed, and the two
disappeared into the latter's cabin, but
before long emerged laughing and the
best of friends. Then Smith mixed
with the passengers, all of his old cheer
full manner once more upon him, and
soon we learned the truth of his
strange doings.
1t seems that he was a detective
officer of well-known Scotland Yard
repute. The authorities in London
had learned, as we had already heard,
that the murderer of whom we had
read had got as far as Liverpool
and they thought that he would try
to escape on one of the three vessels
sailing when We did. So an officer
was ordered to board each of the
three steamers, and thus Detective
Officer Robinson (alias ]. A. Smith,
travelled with us. He did not know
whether his quarry was on board at
all; much less did he know in what
capacity he would travel, and hence he
decided to make the acquaintance of
every man on board, hoping thus to
come across his man. 1t will be re-
membered that the authorities had only
the most meager knowledge of the
murderer's appearance. We had been
at sea for nearly a week and he had
suspected several Of the passengers,
myself amongst the number so he
said, before he came across the stow
away who was working as a stoker
Him he spotted in some way, and from
that moment stuck to him, as we had
seen. At the pilot station he was
afraid that he was going to lose him,
but, as we saw, persuaded the captain
to take him on to Quebec and himself
sent CIPHER message to the police at
that port to be waiting for us.
When asked why he had not arrested
his man as soon as he had recog-
missed him, he replied that he had made
friends with him instead and had thus
extracted much evidence of the mans
guilt.
How he soothed the ruffied feelings
of the "old man" for not having con-
fided in him We never heard, but he
somehow succeeded thoroughly, and
as he shook hands all round and went
ashore for the second time. we raised
a cheer for our friend "Jim Smith,"
who had suffered so much at our
hands.
He left Quebec that night on an
outward-bound mail steamer for Liver
pool with his man, and we heard
some time later that the murderer was
convicted and hanged for the perpetra-
ton of as dastardly and cold-blooded a
crime as had occurred in recent years.
Canadian Magazine.