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James Roderick Evans was a young man who was a very clever prisoner. He was famous with the name of ‘Evans the Break’ as he had escaped thrice times from the jail. He didn’t have violent nature but he had a disease called congenital kleptomaniac which means he used to steal things due to this disease. He was very good in mimic the person.
Officers did whatever they can. They first taken all the mini weapons like knife, scissor, nail-file and razor away from Evan. They checked Evan carefully, they bugged the examination room and the governor was to listen all the things in the room, they searched the invigilator’s suitcase and taken away the paper cutter and locked the room. They planned that one officer would be seeing in the room through a small whole made in walls and doors.
It was the exam of German subject. Evan was given two hours for the examination. The exam time was from 9:15am to 11:15am but it got started 5minutes late. Evan had to give exam in the presence of Officer Stephen but Evan complained that he was losing concentration so governor called Stephen come out from the room. At 9:40am McLeery declared some correction from the slip. At 10.20am Evan requested to put a blanket around his shoulders as he was feeling cold. At 11.20am McLeery reminded him that he had 5minutes left for completing the paper. When exam got over Stephen Escorted McLeery to the main prison gate. And examination conducted smoothly as scheduled.
When exam conducted successfully and Stephen escorted McLeery, they took calm breathe and felt relieved. They were happy but their happiness didn’t remain longer for them as when they came back to Evan’s cell they found a person sprawling back on the chair. He was bleeding from his head and the blood was all over on the white clerical collar down into the black clerical front. They thought that Evan had hit the McLeery and Stephen escorted the man was not the McLeery but it was Evan who had been escorted to the main gate of prison.
When they found McLeery injured, they immediately called the ambulance but then McLeery said in broken sentence that he knew where Evan was. He told Jackson to call Governor there and drew their attention to the text written on the last page of the question paper. And the Governor cracks the code which was ‘From Elsfield Way’. McLeery told the officer to go Elsfield Way. Governor told his superintendent to take McLeery to hospital with him. McLeery helped the police to follow the direction indicated in the text.
The clever thief left behind some clues which were on the question paper. The governor was thinking that it was a careless act that he left clues which were giving some hints that where will Evan go after escaping. But all those clues were fake and for misguiding the officers.
But from the other clue which was an index number 313; centre number 271 and ‘Golden Lion’ also had a deep meaning. The six figure reference 313/271 took them to middle of Chipping Norton where they found Evan in the Golden Lion.
When examination completed they found that McLeery was bleeding from the head so they thought that Evan hit the McLeery but in actual the man was bleeding was the Evan. So fake McLeery (Evan) told that he will help them to trace Evan so an ambulance was called for the fake McLeery (Evan) and he was left
alone there from where he had escaped from a car that he had arranged. The car had soap, water, clothes, and a map. He removed blood stains from hair, removed the fake beard, changed clothes, and wore a new hat. Then he went to the Golden Lion in the middle of Chipping Norton. But later he was caught by the governor due to his clues that he left behind.
Till the end of the story everyone would have been fooled by the Evan. He successfully fooled and misguided the governor and his officers. They caught Evan at Golden Lion and finally governor took a deep peaceful breathe but they didn’t know that Evan had already made a secret plan of escape. The governor send him in a police van to shift him again in the prison but the van was forged and he escaped again. With his successful escape, Evan had a great laugh.
When Stephen came back after escorting the McLeery and he saw that the man was bleeding and thought that he was McLeery without checking him and thought that the man whom he escorted was Evan. None of the officials checked that whether the man was real McLeery. And it’s sure that the gullible officers in jiffy made speculations that amounted to their incompetence.
During his prison stay he noticed the behaviour and nature of the officers so he knew and observed everything about the officers therefore he planned everything and executed perfectly.
He should have been extra careful while sending Evan back to prison. He arrested Evan and sent him into the van along with the police officers whom he didn’t know personally. And it results in the another successfully escape of Evan. Besides this Governor could also bring some more officers with him and he could go in the van so that Evan could be in the observance of himself by this he could flop the plan of Evan. But Evan successfully managed to escape with ease. But this final act of foolishness proved really that “he was just another good-for-a-giggle, gullible governor, that was all”.
When a criminal spend his imprisonment in the prison and struggles in the prison so generally as an human being a sympathy and emotion gets attached in the heart of officers after seeing the struggles and sufferings of a criminal. So in the story when Evan told Jackson about his lucky charm so he allowed him to use his hat as a lucky charm for the Evans, therefore he managed to fool everybody. And with Evans, he wasn’t harsh or strict towards Evans.
Yes, in the battle also the one wins who is powerful with the strength or mind. So from the story we can infer that it’s mostly a war of wits between crime and punishment. Evan was strong enough and clever from his mind therefore successfully managed to fool everybody and successfully escaped from the prison right under their nose.