Pare/4
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THE CHINA MAIL, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1955.
DID IT HAPPEN?
The Strange Man
NOCKING round the world as a tramp, learning about life the hurd way, I have acquired a certain reputa tion for courage, So it will do no harm to tell the truth that I have often been almost frightened to death.
fl
Once in the Lake District, during a heavy mist, I found myself stepping over precipice. It was a dreadful sensation, to feel that below my outstretched foot there was nothing but a hundred feet of empty air, and 1 nearly died from sheer ter-
ror,
Another time, unexpectedly, I came face to face with a savage And bull on a lonely fellside. once, without warning, I sentenced
to death for murder of a man I had Бесп.
was
the
never
But these pale into insigni- ficance when compared with the shoer terror and dread of an- other experience. It was raw fear, fear which is more deadly than bullets ur poison, and i strayed into it all innocently. away in the Highlands of Scot- Jand.
On his knees
The main rond to Inverness and the northeast gues on past Fort Willam and Fort Augustus ad along the site of Lock Ness. 'One summer day thirty-odd want along that way years ago !
too, in high good humour, pleased with myself and with life, whistling as I went.
nowhere
in parti-
Bound for cular, 1 was just a young tramp without a care in the world.
By JIM PHELAN
"It will do no harm to tell the truth' confesses the author of this could-be-true tale-'I have often been almost frightened ' to death... But did this story really happen? The answer will be published
tomorrow.
He wanted something that was all. He wanted something for which he had no words, but his eyes were trying to tell his needs.
almost unheard-of privilege of poking the de, I was a prime favourite at that lodging-house.
Was
When bedtime came, the im- perial rule was oven more manifest. There were four double beds in a large airy room, seven and there were only lodgers, but two men to each bod
Cisioni, the unvarying Furthermore, the little old man deelded who should sleep with whom, and there was no appeal, even from the two tramps, who would naturally have preferred to sleep together.
Again I was the favoured one. Three beds were filled, and I was the seventh man. The old fellow turned with a regal wave of his hand and told me I could have the fourth bed all to myself, as it was unlikely that anyone else would arrive. After a very brief interval for undressing, he took the solitary candle away and left us in darkness.
A nightmare
Jaded, for 1 had had a long day and had walked many miles,
I fell soundly asleep at once. Then in the black darkness of
a nightmare I was being strangied, could not move, could not utter a sound,
Some animal or person clutched my throat lightly, grunted wetly over my mouth, slavered and tore with its teeth at my hair and face. The paralysing terror of nightmare held me for seydral seconds. But I gave way colder
Iear when I discovered that I was awake, and tried to right, and
sull
found myself
powerless,. I was dying, fast, and I was powerless.
Th hands on my throat were large and incredibly strong. A body lay half across mine, hold- ing me down, and the teeth brought the slaver as they champed at the side of my head.
The road keeps close to Loch Ness for most of the way, because the banks are very steep. So you car
can generally see a long
At one point
Blg and powerful as I was, a I way phead.
competent fighter and the sur- could see a man in the distance,
vivor of many a "rough-house, and he about half a mile away,
notice of me until 1 had come tramp. "You feeling queer or I could still do nothing. Twice, was behaving very strangely.
something?" He only pointed while my lungs came near to Coming on towards me, he within 20 yards or so.
Then he hurried in 'my' again at the water, gabbling turating. I tried to turn over, to would walk a few yards, poin!-
pointing agitatedly some words 1 could not catch. grip the throat above me, but I ing towards the loch and resti- rcction,
Then he the waters of Loch Ness, and Then he went on, and I drew a was held securely. culating excitedly, would stop, and throw up his gabbling something I could not long breath of relief as I watched hands above his head in a Enderstand. gesture of horror
and despair, my side he while he dropped to his knees again ond
lands to in the middle of the road.
Two vagrants
When he reached him go. Tell on his knees held out his clasped. ine beseechingly. His Each time, us he knelt, he yes held mine, held out his hands, clasped as gaze of terrible entreaty.
if in entreaty, towards someone
nvisible. Then he would rise
to his feet and come cn towards
me again, pointing to the loch,
AL
then that
In a plereby
A stare
That highway by the lochside is mainly straight as I said, and for more than a mile, whenever I looked back, I could still see the tall Agure
striding away
Then I too, became a wild beast, and fought with my teeth, the only weapons haft me. It is
ON BECOMING A FATHER
Gerard Hoffnung, cartoonist and character... · known to millions on TV, has just become a father. And today for the cheerful guidance of all sleepless, new · parents—he presents Lullaby from the Tales of Young Hoffnung
THE
A RECITAL (continuoso)
A COMPLETE mystery
There, there, there... etc....
AND THE MORNING
AFTER
Hoffnung jun.
The artist
HOFFNUNG
who
artist
prince of the blastre line, la 30.
le known to
Hi bumour
» large TV
and fe pon. He has pro- duced two books. And hia hobby is --playing the tuba...
-(London' Express Service).
SMITH can be a costly
.
name
if you're looking for a past
BY ANNA LANDAU ·
London.
N Beauchamp Place, not far from busy Knights- bridge, antique dealers jostle with smart milliners to attract your attention. But the most interesting window of all does not reach as high as your knee,
Long and narrow, It stands at the base of a shop-front fled with gilt clocks and ornate furnishings. Behind the glass, goy cardboard knights дге positioned for battle, Beside them is the notice which catches your eye!
"If you do not know your wn coat-of-arms, we can search for H."
Another gign saying “Heraldry Today,"
points the way ' down- *stoira.. Thiere, in her little basement office, whose window looks out on to the pavement, alts Mrs Rosemary Pinches, surrounded
banners.
volumes of and heraldic
At twently-five Mrs Pinches has Q thirteen month-old daughter and a nine-month-old business. Both are thriving.
COINCIDENCE
How did "Heraldry Today" begin? "It was all a puro coincidence," she told me. "My first secretarial post was at the College of Arms. I became assistant to one of the heralds, learned to trece pedigrees and
design coats-of-arms,”
Three years ago, however, sho left to get married to John Pinches, a famous oarsman, whom she met at Henley Regatta, she went back to
"But
work before the Coronation and helped in the Earl Marshal's office with the invitations and Renting in the Abbey.
The idea of setting up in busi- ness came about a year ago, "It seemed to me that so few people know anything about heraldry. And you need to know very to know more than other people!"
has
the study of the past roved rewarding in
more
a terribly dimeult thing to get DON IDDON RETURNS FROM HOLIDAY ways than one. Besides tracing
hold of a throat with the human teeth, and God help anyone who has to do it for his life, but I managed It.
a bulldog I clung to the first thought he was I was young and powerful south, pausing every few yards windpipe, crushing and champ- drunk,
he was a and tough, and I had no fear of to drop on its kneos. Well on ing, insane now with fear and the approach of Junatic, then that he might be drunks or lunatics, but this man towards distant Fort Augustus 1 black with in some divadful pain, perhaps did not seem to be either. He could still see him, on each new death. Then, together, the man half-strangled with cramp
that was all, stretch of roud, making his and I rolled from the bed.
or wanted something for which anguished way down the loch.
something of the kind. Feeling He wanted
more and more curious, I walked on slowly towards him,
Closer
look
he had no words, but his eyes were trying to tell his need.
eyes, was
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AGAIN
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We fought on the floor in the decided at last that the man dark, and he clutched me with
But I was
went on
FLAG
WAVING THE
IN EUROPE
lunatic, but not one the same ferocity. T
Unconscious
The unconscious man was the
barber's
down to St. Raphael shop in Cote d'Azur
London. even got my hair cut on Mon-
day every THE Continental trip Paris was shut down."
took three weeks-and
Another American told me a fuir
amount of toll "People here seem to think of the driver's
They nerves, every American is rich. Altogether 1 drove 2,400 don't seem to realise that there are thousands of poor tourists miles from Boulogne to who have saved up for heaven Paris, down the French and knows how long to make
Rivieras to Rome, European trip. and back via Florence,
Italian
| Milan, Turin, over the Alps, then to Paris again and the Channel.
Underpaid
THERE
aires."
on the height
pedigrees work also undertaken by the College of Arms Miro Pinchea cantes out orders for bockplates, stained glass, fings. and medals. She commissions four artists and as many en- And her husband, too, gravers,
for his
does medalling work family firm.
MOSTLY MEN
"Practically all my customers sald Mrs Pinches. are men," "They seem to be more interest- Or is it that ed in the past. Bank Holi-
her they simply can't resist enamelled cuff-links?
But the main business is troc- ing, pedigrees. How much did In a three-day drive I pass-it cost, wondered, to find out
ot the of the Continental vacation time
a super August dayand I found the Journey dangerous and the road often a nightmare alley.
cars - in
Reckless driving
the family tree?
"General
research costs about three or four guineas. If the case involves delving into parish records all over the country and going back to the seventeenth century, it can cost anything up to £50 or £100."
"How do you go about it?" I
"I start at Somerset House and the Public Record Office. Then
look for clues-re- ferences to a City livery com pany, or to a certain village." One myth that Mrs Pinches exploded for me was the claim some people make to go back to William the Conqueror,
"It's just like the Americans who claim their ancestors went over in the Mayflower. If they had all done so, the Mayflower would have sunk!"
Relatively few Americans come to see Mra Pinches. Her clients are mostly English, and in the months since Christmas she has traced 20 to 30 podi- grees for them. "And it's not a question of snob-value: likely as not they go back to traders and grocers."
that Did you know
many people are entitled to a coat- of-arms and don't know about 127
terrifying They were e light green, unwinking, fixed on escaped from an asylum, for his able to breathe now, and for the mine in a compelling stare that ragged clothes and his unkempt rest it was only a fight, Rolling on the floor, I found his eyes, branded Only condition made my blood run cold.
found the soft parts of his body lived on the road for As he came closer I saw that once had I seen eyes like them, having
learned from the Not as a tramp, but as I had he was a man of about 40, tall and that was in a zoo. when the years.
He gipsies. Then someone struck a and thin, woefully emaciated and green eyes of a lion held mine merely as a mad derellet.
ed the scenes of four socidents, a heavy aust have travelled the roads of match, and I grabbed ircased in raga. His face was in the same kind of stare.
and once a motor-cycle carry- Scotland for a long time. It was poker to settle the matter, any deeply lined, as if by prolonged I clenched one fist and drew
ing two men skidded in front of buffering,
me, and the driver and pillion and his whole body back u fow inches in fear. But a disturbing experience, but I knocked him cold.
by the lochside and was aquiver with excilement, the strange man made no hostile
passenger were thrown off and forgot it. even while he walked.
move, only stared at me for
rolled close to my front wheels. All the time I had been moment and held out his hands
Fortunately no one was hurt. At the tiny village of Drum- approaching, he had followed in dreadful pleading. Then he nadrochlt I pulled in for the
are poor Americans. the same routine, walking a few rose to his feet and moved for right. There was a large, clean, unatic from the Fort Augustus
-The road of you know--hundreds
to the South of paces while he pointed to the ward, pointing to the loch again, lodging-house, a white-washed
The British abroad, at thousands of underpaid police France was blocked with tens asked. The grim little landlord throwing loch, then
up his
least in Continental Europe, men, "What's up, mate?" I inquired, coltage on the outskirts, used
read, by
postmen clerks, shop of thousands of vehicles-buses, hands and falling on his knees as, one tramp might ask another tramps and travelling workmen s lips, stored frowningly, at came holding a candle, pursed
are full of bounce. They are workers, and, of course, school cars, lorries, trailers, motor- as it in prayer. He took no although I know this was no alike.
I came across,
I Only seven people were the seven naked men surround showing the flag and waving teachers, We aren't all million cycles, bicycles, and bicyclettes. there, that night, including ing an apparent corpse.
now and again, myself, and
Then it perhaps more vigorously I did not see many examples certs drawn by oxen or mules, only two of them after a while he unburdened than any other visitors to of Americans strut and swagger and donkeys, were tramps.
himself, in monosyllables,
the Continent.
which dozens have complained
There are,
of course, many From the two vagrants I
about. The lunatic had often stayed
Europe, Americans American the inquired about
It is, neither the apparent
During my tour I saw Union Radman. They knew him well, at the loging-house before, had
Jacks on hundreds of cars nor the British in Europe who particularly in Paris and Rome.
and
It is the re- in Cannes flects of dazzlingly gave his name, said callously left there only the previous day.
motor-cycles, and on crash are showing off. that it was a shame he did not He had not been expected back
helmets, knapsacks, and suit surgent Germans. They are not white and pale blue Cadillacs I was not carrying blondes in bikinis com- get himself killed on the road, but-h'mph, h'mph-the laddie
cases. We are becoming
more a sensitive people. or locked up, as he was a was a wee bit strange, so you
intensely nationalistic in out- prepared to meet so many Ger- pletely overshadowed my modest dreadful nuisance ta.
He had returned the couldna tell.
ward display, proud of what mans on this motor tour, I had model late, after we were all in bed. Britain has done and is doing, the rather naive idea that they tramps.
and is something to be happy might prefer to stay at home. A wee bit strange. Harmless, abut.
But they are out in force, Rod of iron did we ken, a puir praying body,
swarming over the roads
and by day. True, be had already The British abroad have the hotels. I saw busload after bus-
THOUGHT the driving been a wee bit Naturally they koked at the night-time, at that very lodging. hard
wild, in the reputation sometimes, of being load of Germans singing and
to fake, starched and guzzling: great fleets of charg- of many Europeans ranged natier from the professional But the grim old landlord had stuffed. or arrogant and do- bancs crammed with TeutonsA
and suicidal. vagrant's point of view! The put him to bed beside me whitemanding. But ou now batch of They are very pleased with. The
Continental- driver, junatic would be counted as a "
and travellers are getting along well themselves-noisy
often unless he snored. Favourite
British tramp by the people who lived favourite, two to a bed was the
with the French and Italians muisances.
visitor, never signals. Ho along the road. Which would rule. That was all.
and turning out good ambas-
Franco I found expensive, and loves to hoot his horn, overtake be bad for the real vagabonds.
sadors.
the food in many
restaurants of corners, indulge in vivid sc- routine or indifferent. It was coleration and harsh braking. veal or chicken (What a pleasure to drive again nearly always or sole. I do not want to see in England, where driving any veal for a long time, as it another word for courtesy.) But It la difficult to design a new one without encroaching on was veal again in Italy on one menu efter
ter another.
I was, of course, left, hope- one that already exists. And contrast I found some dhe Arberican visitors rather
OF 15 lessly behind on the corners" in Tho
Mrs Pinches disapproven of charging practice morose. In the Eiffel Tower I
(it is the my soft-sprung, bulky conver
introducing airplanes and cars Entrent threo American men Percent for service
· or, passed
let alone a same in London's West End) is tible but caught up
into the design, sat in auch solemn silence near
convict recent request. This an abuse when tips are expect on the straight stretches. I did my tablo that one of the
seems to be carrying ancestor American women shouted: "You od as well. There are no service not find the French Foods too charge in American hotels, and bad, although their shoulders
worship a big too far,flo look like sore beats you're in in the cheap, lavishly equipped are soft and crumble under your
What about having your Paris, for Pete's sake."
motels, which Europe and Brl- Wheels, and the surface general- Later one of the three sad tain bodiy head, no tips at al is inferior to our British family tree traced? There are
only two
warnings- „Bold'
Mra I have often complained about toads.. of these aigns: Yanks, Go high prices in the US, but.
Exeter, Home. There's nothing better Europe is catching up. we'd like to do--and our boys” Then, ewitching the mubject drastically, he said: "I've been in Paris a week and ween these two-hour lunches that the French have. Do you know what I have at home in Cleves and? A tuna fish sandwich and lé "load" of milk.
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GILMANS
GLOUCESTER ARCADE,"
or
no
That was all, and it is over The elderly man who kept the 30 years ago. But often wake lodging-house, a small, grlim, st night, trembling in fear, grey quidnunc of strong per- when I recall the beseeching sonality, knew the
wanderer stare of those piercing green piso. Apparently he often came that way, had gone on for Fort oves, and roball what it was that the strange man wanted, Augustus ng I guessed. A wee He wanted my 1o. That was bit strange, the old man summed
i: up Some of his folk, had been drowned in the lochi he thought, lang'syne..
The old fellow ruled bis lodging-house with a red of iron. Imperially he told his lodgers whether they needed tenor net
directed, and. pontifically he summed up every conversation, No one darod contradict him there wall to other lodging-house for miles.
But it was clear that he had taken arest uking to me. În
the conversations. I was a coorded nok exactly deferance but the
all.
WORLD 'COPYRIGHT RESERVED
10 IT REALLY HAPPEN?
YES
NO
© Put your tich in the space aburn and (koop (this pond 'by you outil tomorrow, ja «,when the manwać will bi girok-with
another story in this inclòs, by Vịn
Harald Ballay
suit ostiors that I might “slmoste ota vističuzy's storyinthe Mystery: have boot 'entitled to hold and Farmit) by Christianer, bykokkermany opinion. Also I was granted the
IN
Morose
of
men said to me: "I've seen some
I
between reckless
#1
Is
TWO WARNINGS
Pinches:
"I you come from most of the recorde have been burnt, and there a Utile we can do -super-highway "And If your name is Smith
By far the best stretch of road I drove on "was; betifeen Milan and Turin on the superb.
Autostrado, No complaint
long
where, you can highbali, between 70 and 80 confortably you will have to pay twice as
much
anyone else,, beca TM ofraid I used far too much if the Italians can build a road
se saken Awipe as long Often petrol on this tour, but I had like this. Why cannot "we," Or boen warned and I will not why don't wet. We have nothing theres so much material that complain. I would have done remotely approaching the Auto wn - cannot get any; further
***Anyone siseme on anythin better, Ila khall sports car.. I, girada, and no vinosid rod alibia what work meane-maybe even drove from 'Paris. through or excuses @willy explains curl -we pay But it's not quite the Britma too. Heck, I couldn't. Chumbon and A
BURY, LE YOUR DRZpa le Me Batty
ury Europeana • don't