De misdaad in het Vondelpark

Summary

A policeman is strolling along Emma Street, when suddenly a gentleman rushes up to him crying: "Constable, someone has just taken a boy's life! The culprit has fled into Vondel Park. Come with me and I shall point him out to you!". The two men run into the park until the policeman, unaccustomed to such strenuous activity and now out of breath, stands still and asks: "Where is he? I see no-one." "He's there", cries the gentleman, pointing with his walking stick to a young man sitting on a bench, calmly reading the magazine Het Leven. They creep up behind the young man and seize him by his collar. The young man springs up, shakes off his assailants and dashes away, leaving his coat in the hands of the policeman.

A wild chase through the lanes of the park begins. The "criminal" climbs over the railing of a bridge and hangs under it, hoping that his pursuers will not discover him. However, some boys who have been following the chase warn the policeman who is then able to catch the "criminal". Triumphantly he drags the young man in the direction of the police station, followed by a crowd of butchers' boys and children's nannies. His triumph is short-lived. At a refreshment kiosk he comes across a boy who is still howling about the "taking of his life". It turns out that what was taken was not the boy's life, but his copy of the magazine 'Het Leven' (in English: 'Life').