A Clever Capture

by F.B.

A well-known inspector of the detective force once related to us a clever capture, effected by himself, of a daring thief, who had more than once escaped from prison. The inspector himself had considerable experience, and tracked his man to a public house; and, under the pretense of being an old thief himself threw his companion off his guard by relating anecdotes. He was unarmed himself, and knew that the real burglar—who was known to the fraternity as Bill the Cracksman—had a revolver in his breast pocket, with the use of which he was thoroughly acquainted; and the question was how to arrest him single-handed. Story followed story and reminiscence, till Bill and his companion—who called himself Jerry Blake—became as thick as members of the former’s profession are proverbially supposed to become.

‘Now,’ said Mr. Blake, after a pause as a last bit of anecdote. ‘I’ll show how Joe the Tinman was took. He’d sworn how as there wasn’t a man in the colony or out of it as would take him single-handed. Well, as the reward for his capture was a heavy one, a chap named Simmons, who was then one of the mounted police, determined to try it on. So what does he do, knowing some of Joe’s haunts, but bribes a stockman, who lived in a lonely hut, on the side of a deep gully among the hills, to let him take possession of the place a week or so. It was a hut where Joe was accustomed to call when he wanted to pick up news, or to get a fresh supply of rum, for the stockman had been a convict like himself, and a pal of his; but pal or no pal, he sold Joe this time, and no mistake.’

‘I’d have blown his brains out, if I’d been Joe,’ observed the cracksman, with a savage oath.

‘I honor your sentiments,’ responded Mr. Blake; ‘and from what I know of Joe, he shared them. But, you see, when he looked in… Read More