R. Austin Freeman

The Exploits of Danby Croker

Warsaw 2017

Contents

PREFACE

I. THE CHANGELING

II. THE PRISON-BREAKER

III. THE BRAZEN SERPENT

IV. THE CONSTABLE’S HELPMATE

V. A VOTIVE CANDLE

Chapter VI. THE EMPEROR’S KEEPSAKE

VII. WOMAN AND SUPERWOMAN

VIII. THE GOOD SAMARITAN

IX. THE “PRISON JOSEPH”

X. PETER MOCKETT’S LEGACY

XI. AUNT JEMIMA

XII. THE HEAVENLY TWINS

EPILOGUE — SUSANNAH’S DOWRY

PREFACE

ELSEWHERE I have observed that the primary and only legitimate function of a work of fiction is to furnish entertainment to the reader; but that if this function is duly discharged there can be no harm in an author’s artfully and unostentatiously insinuating into his work a certain amount of matter having a more serious purpose. Even a book written in so light a vein as is the present “disreputable autobiography” may have a serious message for the sufficiently thoughtful reader; and it is of the subject of that message that I should like to speak.

Those who are familiar with the practice of the Court of Criminal Appeal may find in chapter XII. something reminiscent of an actual case that was once heard in it. More than this, I suppose I had better not say; but I may be permitted to express the hope that those who are concerned in the administration of the law will subject to the most jealous and searching scrutiny all finger-print evidence that is not fully corroborated. The wild and dangerous statement made many years ago by Galtan that a finger-print furnishes “evidence requiring no corroboration” seems to have been accepted even in high legal quarters. But it is utterly untrue. A finger-print, duly attested by the evidence of a witness, has an evidential value equal to that of the testimony of the particular witness. An unwitnessed finger-print has no value at all until it has been proved that it really is a finger-print and not a fraudulent imitation; which can be done only by the evidence of some person who witnessed its production. A fraud that is so easy calls for safeguards at least equal to those set up against the more difficult fraud of a false signature.

That is all I have to say. Now I will “holde my pees” and let the reader get on with the story.

R. A. F. Halton Camp West, Bucks,
July, 1916

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