CATCHING THE THIEF

"Now, constable," said the defendant's counsel in cross-examination," you say that the prisoner was exactly twenty-seven steps ahead of you when you started to run after him?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you swear that he takes eight steps to your five?"

"That is so."

"Then I ask you, constable, as an intelligent man, to explain how you ever caught him, if that is the case?"

"Well, you see, I have got a longer stride. In fact, two of my steps are equal in length to five of the prisoner's. If you work it out, you will find that the number of steps I required would bring me exactly to the spot where I captured him."

Here the foreman of the jury asked for a few minutes to figure out the number of steps the constable must have taken. Can you also say how many steps the officer needed to catch the thief?