Untitled - Beeldbibliotheek

138 CARAVAN DAYSBefore we had time to consider campinggroundfor the night another complication arose.I had the ill-luck though it is a thing that mayhappen to anyone to fall into the hands of thepolice. I might go so far as to say that I wascaptured by a Posse of police, if that is the rightword, for there were no less than five of them. Ihave never been able to make out what they weredoing there, but Ithink they must have turnedtheir attention to me, because they had beenbaulked of other prey. They were no ordinarypolice. They were all beautifully dressed andlavishly decorated with braid and medals, andin the course ofthe court-martial that followed(for I was subjected to a searching enquiry) theyaddressed each other as " Sergeant " and " Inspector" and so on, which really added a distinguishedair to the proceedings. My crime wasconnected with the proper display of my nameand address on the body of the van, as by lawprescribed, in letters of not less than an inch inheight. My defence was that this was a meretechnicality, but the affair was assuming mostthreatening proportionsbefore I knew where Iwas. My name, state, profession, age, address,the colour of my eyes and manyother ratherintimate details (I thought) having been taken