BANDITS OUTWITTED.

BY 68-YEAR-OLD BUTCHER. OLD DOG FOB HARD ROAD. AN EX-NEW ZEALANDER. " (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 9. It fell to the lot of Michael Briggs, OS years of age, who spent many years in New Zealand, and is now a butcher in Abercrombie Street, Redfern, to outwit two armed bandits who held him up at his home and robbed him. The old man, at one time exceptionally good with his fists, and still hale and hearty, detained them long enough for their presence to become known and the alarm to be I raised. Incidentally their arrest has ! given a definite setback to the wave of ! holdups in New South Wales, which threatened to assume the proportions of the Victorian series, where 24 crimes of that nature have occurred in three weeks. Briggs lives alone in the vesidence behind and above his shop in Abercrombie Street, and is reputed to be fairly wealthy. lie lias an extensive list: of customers, and local gossip credits him with a bank balance, of more than £0000. He employs a local woman to clean the place every day and cook his two early meals; but she loaves' soon after 2 p.m., and from that time onward he is usually alone in the shop. An expert butcher, he says he would rather do all the work himself. It was not difficult, therefore, for two men to enter the rear of his premises late in the afternoon of Monday, which was a bank holiday, and secrete themselves in a spare room upstairs. Briggs closed the shop at 5.30 p.m. and went to the rear portion of the ground floor, where he prepared some tea for himself, completing the meal about 6.30 p.m.- It was at that time that he heard some suspicious noises upstairs, and without bothering to ask for assistance from neighbours he set out oil a tour of inquiry alone. Before he left the ground floor, however, he stuffed £100 in notes into his socks and armed himself with a hammer. $ Confronted by Two Men. His search of the two front rooms was fruitless, but when'he entered the storeroom two men confronted him. One grasped his hand in which he had the hammer clenched, and menaced hiiu with a revolver, while the other poised a bottle in case the old man showed any further signs of fight. Realising he was outnumbered Briggs made no attempt to fight. "Though I would liave liked to have had a crack at them," he said later. They demanded his money, ordering him to be quick about it, and drove him downstairs. "I haven't got much here, but you can have that," he said, indicating a shelf under the stairs on which he had stackcd about £15 in silver, ready wrapped for banking. They took this, but demanded to know where the notes were. "It's bank holiday," they said, "and we know you haven't been able to bank sincc Saturday. Don't fool about. Where are the notes?" The old man ' prevaricated, jollied them along, offering therii whisky and beer, and they both had a few drink:-; of the spirit. In the meantime they tied him, with his hands behind his back, to a chair, mrl searched-feverishly oft tho ground floor for a cache in which they believed lie had hidden the notes. "You won't find any because they don't jxist," he told them, and warned them to. have another dlrink and go. They had another drink, which had the effect lie desired. They commenced to bluster and prepared a gag to keep him quiet while they searched upstairs: "We know you've got notes and we I ire going to find them," they fairly J •oared, under the influence of . the J whisky. i

Showed His Strategy. And now Briggs showed his strategy. He roared back, again and again, reiterating .that he had no notes. "Get out of'the place," lie shouted, "and be satisfied with what -you have got." Just what lie anticipated occurred. His neighbours, knowing tile old man lived alone and wa's , a peaceable man, heard the raised voices * and listened closely. Soon realising what had happened, they sent for the police. f Cecil Jackson and Theodore Kennedy climbed dhe back fence and crept toward the back door \Vith the object of going to the old man's assistance if he needed it before the police arrived. One was armed with an empty revolver and the other with a tomahawk. Their move* ments, however, were overheard by the bandits, who were not slow to realise the danger. They ran out of a side door into- a lane ahd were here held up, by Jackson and Kennedy, who had climbed on the side fence. A Shot Fired. One of the desperadoes fired a shot at the two,men oh the fence. Fortunately it missed them by inches, and Jackson threw his tomahawk. It stag l gered one of the bandits, but both ran. on'down the lane. '■ At that moment the police, who had broken all their own speed laws in a dash from the station, arrived at the front door. : The inspector stayed there, •and three constables ran through an adjoining shop to the* back. After a swift sprint and a short struggle they caught and overpowered ,one of the bandits in a back street," finding his mask still tied round his neck, and some of the .stolen .silver in his pocket.. The revolver was found in a neighbouring backyard. The other man- tried to escape ■ through-a'Second chop,-but walked into the arms of the'inspector,.who was not impressed by his story that he had been shot at and was running away. Especially in view of the fact that he, too, had forgotten to remove his handkerchief mask, though he had dropped it from his face round his neck. He, too, had stolen silver in his pocket. , Resigned to Their Fate. Both men were resigned to their fate. "A bit more luck and we would have made a good haul," they fcaid. '.We knew he had the cash, but he certainly put it over us." Both were charged with robbery under . arms, while a further count of shooting | with intent to murder was laid against ! one of them. _ ; Briggs later expressed the opinion that the men had been watching him for weeks. Incidentally, his trade on the day following the attack was a record for the shop. 1 The Redfem captures followed close on the heels of a daring hold-up at Bandwick, where a prominent Pad dock

bookmaker, who returned home from the races, fortunately with only £80 in his pockets, was held up at the door of his garage and relieved of that amount by a trio of armed and masked men. James Brogan was the victim and he is satisfied that the bandits exjieeted to get nearly £1000, which he had won at r,he meeting, but which, in accordance with the usual custom of bookmakers, he had deposited in the vault of his club in the city. Police believe that more than one gang of hold-up men is at work, and their inquiries are made exceptionally difficult by the fact that in each instance the victim can furnish only a meagre description of his assailant, so well are they masked.