The Little River news., 1922-07-19
True Detective Stories BELOW DEAD LINE


 | Copyright by The Wheeler Syndicate. Inc. @ONTRARY to the general opinion. IA it was not Inspector Byrnes who l instituted the famous imaginary
 barrier known as the "dead line"-
 point beyond which crooks could not penetrate except under peril of immediate arrest even though no
 charges were pending against them at the moment. The device was orig mated by William Melville, superin- tendent of Scotland Yard during the
 reign of Queen Victoria.
 But 1t was in connection with the prevention of a crime, rather than in the solving of one, that Melville had his most distinguished success, for If he had not been able to capture Vroff
 the famous anarchist, it is quite pos sible that the czar of Russia and pos sibly some of the members of the reigning family in England would have been blown into eternity.
 The affair in question occurred some months after Melville had taken charge 1 of Scotland Yard. The visit ef the czaf had been widely hefalded through the press and every governmental on- erative in Great Britain had been pressed into service to secure the safe l ty of the visiting ruler. The entire Island was combed for men who were known to be hiding, and. as a final resort, Melville issued an order that I epy c,,onl oi nuc rSso ro c<o~ %o,n1 x{thin five square miles of the line of march i, from Buckingham palace to the Man. sion house would be arrested on sight.
 Three days before the arrival of the czar, Meivilles reports indicated that the city had been thoroughly ] cleaned up.
 But m the very day of the process sion, only two hours before the royal families were scheduled to leave the palace, Melville was informed that his men had failed to appfehend the most dangerous nihiltst on the continent a young Russian by the name of .vron, who had escaped from prison in St. Petersburg and had entered England in such roundabout manner that his arrival had not been recorded. Ac- cording to the word which reached Melville, Vron had secured employment in wine merchants establishment along the line which the procession would follow, and had sworn to throw a bomb under the czar's carriage as 1t passed.
 Melville realized that there wasn't moment to be lost. Also, it was job which he must handle alone. As it happened, Melville knew the establishment where Vroff worked. and l he also knew that a certain vintage of champagne was kept in the cellar. whence it was produced only at spe- cial request. It was for this reason, therefore. that he made his way to the | wine shop and stated that he would like to purchase half a dozen bottles of the champagne.
 , As he expected, the proprietor in- formed him that the vintage was in the bin, but offered to have it brought up immediately.
 Don't bother to do that" replied the Scotland Yard man, I'll go down with one of your cellarmen and pick out the. bottles for myself. Possibly I'll see something else that I want at the same time. Send that man along with me to point out the way" and I he indicated one of the employees whom he had recognized from the de cription as Xroff. AS they reached the foot of the stairs, the cellarman pointed to bin nearby and stated that it contained the champagne the customer asked for. Realizing that he could not stage his coup so close. to means of exit, Mel vile examined the bottles. offered some objection to the age of the wine and inquired what lay in the back of the cellar.
 Burgundy replied the other, com- mencing to be. a bit restive, for the hour of the approach of the. process sion was drawing rapidly. nearer
 "Fine!' said the Scotland Yard head. 'I think I'd prefer that, after all. Let me see some of it,, will you?" Grumbling a bit under his breath, Vroff led the way back into the dim recesses of the cellar, and as he bent forward to secure bottle, Melville closed with. him. .... With a. sidewise, eel-like slip, vrofr ducked out from under the detec- tive's arms, and. before Melville knew what. he. was doing, he had reached into a bin in the center of the cellar and secured a big, murderous bomb, which he held high above his head. ,..
 "Stop!" he commanded, as the Scot land Yard operative started toward him. ""One. more step and I'll blow the whole place to h-l and you with it." ... -. Melville, wise in the knowledge of anarchial principles, realized that this was bluff. ..,
 You've got me-" he admitted. "But for Gods sake don't throw that thing