When the train reached Preston Park, a man covered with
blood, who gave his name as Lefroy, stepped from the train, and then returned to the smoking-carriage, telling the ticket- collector that at Croydon he had had two companions,—an old gentleman, and a man in the dress of a "countryman,"—both of whom had disappeared. He had beard the sound of a shot on entering Merstham tunnel, he said, and had immediately lost con- sciousness, and had not recovered it till close upon Preston Park. The inspector called attention to a bit of gold-chain projecting from the toe of his boot, on which he appeared confused, but almost immediately recovered himself, and said that he had placed his watch there for safety. Lefroy was without a collar and a necktie, which he was permitted to purchase in Brighton ; but he would not allow a search of his pociret-book, and the Brighton police appear not to have insisted. After having his slight wounds, apparently inflicted by the butt-end of a revolver, dressed at Brighton, he was taken back to his residence at Wallington, near Croydon, by a policeman, who stayed at the door while be changed his dress and escaped by the back entrance,—such was the vigilance or innocence of the police. It appears to be thought that Lefroy, alias Mapleton, who gave himself out as a journalist, can hardly escape,—at all events, now that the reward for his apprehension has been offered. The ministers of Retribution are lame of foot, till the tonic of self- interest spurs on the halting limb.
