Two Burglars Caught

A Bushman as a Thief Taker

We lived in a terrace at the time in which my tale is laid, in what we may term a subdistrict of London, for we were within five-miles of Charing Cross, and the dark month of December was upon us. Robberies had been frequent in our neighborhood, and no less than three houses out of the ten in the terrace had been entered by burglars and robbed, and yet no discovery of the thieves had taken place. So ably, also, had the work of entry been accomplished, that in no case had the inmates been alarmed; and it was not until the servants descended in the morning that the discovery of a robbery was made.

In two out of the three cases, an entrance had been effected through a pantry window, by removing a pane of glass, and cutting a small hole in the shutter. This window was on the ground floor, and could easily be reached, therefore, from the outside. In the third robbery, an upper window was entered by means of a knife which forced back the fastening, and of course allowed the sash to be raised.

So rapidly had these [robberies] occurred, that the whole neighborhood was alarmed. The police shook their heads, and looked knowing, but did nothing; and what was much to be lamented, failed to find any clue to the robbers, who, they at the same asserted, were evidently not regular cracks-man.

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