was evidently a case of savage assault and murder, and, until the real
culprit was found, I should have much difficulty in explaining my
intrusion into the affair. Of course I could establish my own identity;
but how, without disagreeably involving the doctor’s wife, could I give
any adequate reason for changing clothes with the murdered man? While my
brain worked feverishly at this problem, I subconsciously obeyed a
secondary instinct—to get as far away as possible from the scene of the
crime, and to get rid at all costs of my incriminating uniform. There I
found a difficulty. I tried two or three obscure clothes shops, but my
entrance invariably aroused an attitude of hostile suspicion in the
proprietors, and on one excuse or another they avoided serving me with
the now ardently desired change of clothing. The uniform that I had so
thoughtlessly donned seemed as difficult to get out of as the fatal shirt
of—You know, I forget the creature’s name.”
“Yes, yes,” said the Chaplain hurriedly. “Go on with your story.”
“Somehow, until I could get out of those compromising garments, I felt it
would not be safe to surrender myself to the police. The thing that
puzzled me was why no attempt was made to arrest me, since there was no
question as to the suspicion which followed me, like an inseparable
shadow, wherever I went. Stares, nudgings, whisperings, and even
loud-spoken remarks of ‘that’s ’im’ greeted my every appearance, and the
meanest and most deserted eating-house that I patronised soon became
filled with a crowd of furtively watching customers. I began to
sympathise with the feeling of Royal personages trying to do a little
private shopping under the unsparing scrutiny of an irrepressible public.
And still, with all this inarticulate shadowing, which weighed on my
nerves almost worse than open hostility would have done, no attempt was
made to interfere with my liberty. Later on I discovered the reason. At
the time of the murder on the lonely highway a series of important
bloodhound trials had been taking place in the near neighbourhood, and
some dozen and a half couples of trained animals had been put on the
track of the supposed murderer—on my track. One of our most
public-spirited London dailies had offered a princely prize to the owner
of the pair that should first track me down, and betting on the chances
of the respective competitors became rife throughout the land. The dogs
ranged far and wide over about thirteen counties, and though my own
movements had become by this time perfectly well-known to police and
public alike, the sporting instincts of the nation stepped in to prevent
my premature arrest. “Give the dogs a chance,” was the prevailing
sentiment, whenever some ambitious local constable wished to put an end
to my drawn-out evasion of justice. My final capture by the winning pair
was not a very dramatic episode, in fact, I’m not sure that they would
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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