Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-08-07

E1ONtfers 1 udu uuleu int Two MeA
and, after walking a short distance.
stopped at a shop window ostensibly
to look at the goods displayed there.
but really to glance back at the two
men l have mentioned. They had sep
aratcd, and one of them was coming
toward me. He stopped to look up at
the signs above him as though looking
for some especial place. Had he come
right on l might not have been very
fearful. As it was I inferred that.
seeing me glance back from before
the shop window, he had pretended
to be looking for some particular adj
dress in order to divert my suspicion
from him.
My heart leaped up in my throat.
However, l would soon know If this
man was following me, and / neryed
myself to meet the issue if he were.
l walked on. turning down a cross
street leading away from the point l
had started for, and presently, stop
ping again at a shop where women's
hats were displayed, l glanced back.
The man l feared was just passing be-
hind a projection of a building.
I now felt assured that he was
watching me, but resolved to make one
more trial before acting upon the sup
position that he was. l walked on and
turned down another street, taking a
direction toward the point from which
l had started. Then, suddenly turning
at a right angle SO that I could see my
shadower without appearing to do so,
1 caught him coming toward me and
looking straight at me.
Owing to the dangerous work in
which l was engaged l spent much of
my leisure time In thinking up expe-
dents in case | should be caught red
handed. l now resolved to put in prac-
tice one of the most daring of which
| had conceived. l was sure that this
man was q police official and that he
was following me At any moment he
was liable to have mt arrested, though
I fancied that unless he believed he
had excited my suspicious he would
permit me to go where l intended,
leaving me to implicate others. As TO
dropping my package, | carried a knife
with which | could slit my pocket and
let it drop out Could I have got far
enough away from my shadower l
would have lone this, but after | turn
ed SO quickly as to see him coming for
me he drew nearer and / was in great
trepi1qtion as to being arrested.
fore resolved to put in prac-
II plan l have referred to. l
kn> efy well every police station in
st. Petersburg and directed my steps
to the nearest one. On reaching it l
turned into the building, my watcher
following me to the very door, and in
a few minutes l was standing at. a
desk, behind which sat an official in
! uniform.
81 have found a package in the
street, | said, wrapped in such fash
ion as printed matter is usually wrap
ped to send through the mails. Thexe
is no address on 1t. I was abolz 70
tear off the-ecyer Wren it occrSk&40
me that it might contain something of
an illegal character. 1t seemed to
me that l would better turn it over to
a representative of the government. IL
it is ordinary matter no harm is done;
if there is anything criminal in it my
action in bringing it to you is proof
that am in no way to blame for hav-
ing it in my possession"
| nerved myself to say this as in
| genuously as possible. The official took
the package which handed him and,
breaking it open, ran his eye over it.
The expression On his face changed at
once from one of carelessness to n
of intense interest.
where did you find this?" he asked.
II was looking in at a shop window
not far from here in which hats were
exhibited, and, casting my eyes down
to the tagging, saw it lying at my
feet"
did you see any one moving away
who might have dropped it?"
l pretended to ransack my memory,
then said:
after emerging from my home this
morning to do some shopping l noticed
o man going In the same direction as
|. He had been standing at the MILF
ner's window just before | reached It,"
"Can you identify him?"
81 could If | were to see him, but he
is doubtless far from me now. n Of
the crowd"
When l said this I believed my shad-
over was at the door of the police Of
fee. And yet on second thought it
seemed that seeing me go into the sta
ton he would suppose that he had got
on to the wrong track and would aban-
don his chase. But he would likely re-
port it, and then | would not get off
SC easily.
The officer at the desk took my adj
dress and permitted me to go where l
liked; but, believing that he would send
some one to make sure that | had Civ
en- him the right one. l left him resolv-
ing to go straight home. l was reliev-