chained prisoners from a distance of 50 yards,
Hio
own evidence contained such palpable
alochoods that my suspicions
falocho
quid
and
al
once
were increased
suspended him.
He stated to me that he was on the
alert, and at once observed 6 convicts excaping
rushing towards him from 50 yards distance; that he at once
fired but they
wvere
only 3 yards from him when he did 20; one convict; (he
that he shattered the
had
Alin a
jaw of one prisoner with a shattered jaw brought into gaol before I examined him)
that he was then knocked down insensible
fall
and his rifle taken from him. I asked him to explain how it was that a man whose jaw he had blown off, did not and get captured by the officers pursuring close behind, he replied that he had seen live of the
the man's comrades help the wounded
man on
seen such
to the
• junk — nobody else had
ск
thing
___ and as Nehal Singh professed to have been knocked insensible at the time, his statement appeared to
me
472
most palpable falsehood. It appeared
to me that he must have been half asleep, perhaps under the influence of baugh.
liquor,
and
probably knocked down and disarmed without firing a shot. A rush
of
50 yards, occupying about 20 seconds, would
give
a man armed with
a
Snider Rifle
time to fire 2 if not I times - the firing of
an armed man on an.
mob,
undisciplined
as is well known, makes them
care
always recoil and would in this have given time to the purening Turnkey s to overtake the Prisoners . But if a sentry after firing his rifle has not time to reload,
the clubbed rifle evving round to
Q
terrible weapon at close quarters, and the sentry might certainly have detained the lo
convick for a few seconds to enable the pursuing turnkeys to reach them. Anxious to ascertain the bruth. I examined the unwounded
prisoners who escaped. Their evidence is of
Comme
quite unreliable; half of them said
had
: fired at them and mixed,
the guard
the