160 Timehri. 
ternity. These houses as a rule were supplied with strong dovrs and the owner 
kept his servants fairly well armed. The doors had to be battered in if entrance 
could not be effected by a ruse and for this purpose Chinese gravestones came 
in handy. These often gave a clue on which to begin the work of detection and 
many a conviction resulted from the evidence they afforded of the spot where 
the final preparations were made, which led to successful pioof later on. Where 
the robbery was the work ota professional gang there were sure te be some 
Malays or Siamese mixed up init and one found in the tracks leading from~ 
the house small pieces of sharpened pamboo, called ranjows, so tied together 
that when thrown on the ground some of the sharpened points stuck up. This 
prevented any person with bare feet from following. If the robbery was 
the result of revenge or done at the instigation of a secret society, the 
pezpetrators were yenerally Chinese and as elaborate plans were made 
for effacing all traces, detection was by no means easy. 
Tue FAME OF JEREMIAH. 
In the police of Province Wellesley, however, there was an Inspector to whom 
such investigations wexe a joy and who was facile princeps in unravelling the 
most mysterious cases from apparently worthless clues. Jeremiah, for that 
was his name, was of mixed nlood—what exactly one never knew. Malay 
and Siamese were ce:tainly present, possibly also European and Chinese. Be 
that as it may, old Jeremiah was a terror to evil-doers. Possessed of great 
strength he was equal to any rough and tumble if it was necessary. But it was 
in his faculty ot reasoning d@ la Sherlock Holmes and his ability to transform 
himself into a Malay, a Siamese o: a Chinese ‘hat his power lay. A polyglot, he 
was at home in whatever disguise he assumed ana a» he wandered far and near 
and never let the smallest detail escape him he invariably managed to spot the 
criminals, If they were across the frontier they were induced to come on the 
British territory and of course were accidentally captured along with Jeremiah 
by a Patrol. More often than not some of the stolen property was on them and 
the unearthing of a good deal more at some spot within our textitory enabled the 
police to rope in the greater part of the gang. Jeremiah occasionally wore the 
uniform of an Inspector and as such took part in the tedious ceremonials so far 
as he was concerned of standing at the end of a line of armed and uniformed 
police when they were inspected by the Governor at the head station. 
Of drill he knew little. At shooting he was an expert either with revolver 
or snider while in stick play he was a master. Many and many were the expedi- 
tions he and I made together by day as well as by night and the tight places 
into which he led me gave me some very unpleasant hours. Like all Asiaties, 
Malays are superstitious, and the fame of Jeremiah as what would be called 
here an “‘ obeah man” was widespread. The fact that he was engaged ina 
case caused many an offender to so behave that he gave himself away and I 
have seen a desperately armed Malay stand spell-bound on the appearance on 
the scene of old Jeremiah. Peace to his ashes. I only hope he has been fol- 
lowed by men of his calibre for although perhaps with modern means detection 
is more easy than it was in my day, the ability to detect crime is still all- 
important in a police force. Whatis said of a poet is equally true of a 
