man reappeared in the street, "Hastings" was a total eclipse. His ejaculation was simply "Well I'm blowed!" A night or two later, after the word had ben restored, another constable was set to watch at the same spot, and had not been there long when Mr. Pain's son rushed out and showed the constable a spurious half-crown, saying a woman, who was gone up the street, had passed it for a good one. The constable, after assuring himself that the coin was really bad, hurried after the supposed woman and overtook her. The woman, however, protested that she had not been in any shop, and knew nothing about the coin in question. Getting back to his post, the Constable found that "Hastings" had received another opaque daub. When the "paint-pot boys" thought they had had spot enough, they decided to leave the matter to the committee appointed at the public meeting, and as a last act in the comedy, started out with a pot without pain, a pole, and a short ladder. They more than ever purposely appeared to be dodging the police, and at length whistled as though signalling to a comrade. Sergeant Jones (I believe it was) hastened across the road and seized the "conspirators", at the same time exclaiming "I thought there was something in that whistle". The prisoners pro-tem begged to be let off, one of them declaring it would be very inconvenient to be shut up during the Christmas, he having promised to take his sweetheart to a ball. Supt. Glenister, who in after years could sing very melodiously "Good bye Sweetheart" - had at that time but recently succeeded Battersby as chief constable, and he with the sergeant, conducted the prisoners to the parts of the town where it was supposed they had been at the "old game", but found that no work had been done. The following pararaph from the St. Leonards paper will tell the rest:-
"Capture of a Notorious Gang" - "We learn, with unbounded gratification that one of the most active of our ever-watchful guardians of the peace, assisted by his chief (who knew 'there was something in that whistle'), succeeded at 8p.m. on Christmas Eve, in capturing, after a smart chase, a trio of the most notable exponents of devilry, whose favourite pastime of late is supposed to have been the beautifying the face of poor old Hastings with a cosmetic of ebony every time the venerable creature overstepped his boundary. Their mischievous designs (happily frustrated) may be judged of from the fact of their having in their possssion some very suspicious implements, consisting of a long pole, a short ladder and an empty paint-pot, and which they refused to surrender upon any other terms than that of indulging in a most audacious display of merriment, which (it being Christmas time) was so powerfully infectious as to assail even the well-known gravity of the beaks. It may well be imagined how serious were the charges against them when we say -
