Chapter 7 Evans Tries an O level Solutions
Question - 11 : - What was the phone call for during the examination?
Answer - 11 : -
The phone call, was supposedly, from the Examinations Board that instructed candidates offering German, 021-1 to note a correction. McLeery was instructed to call out the correction carried in the examination paper.
Question - 12 : - What did Evans ask for during the course of the examination? How did Stephens react to this?
Answer - 12 : -
Evans wanted to put a blanket around his shoulders as he claimed to be feeling cold. Stephens was sceptical of allowing Evans the benefit of the blanket to keep him from trying to suffocate McLeery. But he changed his mind, considering the prison cell was indeed cold, away from the sun’s warmth.
Question - 13 : - How was the invigilator escorted out of the prison? What was Stephens’ reaction?
Answer - 13 : -
Stephens escorted McLeery to the main gates. He noticed that the invigilator’s Scottish accent seemed more pronounced than ever, and his long black overcoat created the illusion that he had suddenly grown slimmer. Nevertheless, Stephens felt pleased that the Governor had asked him, and not Jackson, to see McLeery off the premises.
Question - 14 : - What shock awaited Stephens when he looked into Evan’s cell?
Answer - 14 : -
Stephen decided to take one last look at Evans after escorting the invigilator out. Much to his horror, he discovered the injured parson in place of Evans. He found the parson with a blanket on his shoulders, and his irregularly cropped hair covered with blood, dripping onto his priestly white collar. He shouted frantically for Jackson.
Question - 15 : - Who was the bleeding man in the cell? What was he doing?
Answer - 15 : -
The bleeding man in the cell was none other than Evans himself who the officials presumed to be the invigilator. McLeery, as he was presumed to be, seemed to hear the officers at hand, as his hand felt feebly for a handkerchief from his pocket, and he held it to his bleeding head. He tried to speak but could give only a long low moan.
Question - 16 : - Where did Carter take McLeery?
Answer - 16 : -
Carter was alarmed to see McLeery hurt. He immediately called for an ambulance, but McLeery insisted on leading them to Elsfield Way, where he claimed Evans was. The Governor told Carter to take McLeery for guidance as he was the only one who seemed to know what was happening. Carter helped McLeery into the car and McLeery told them to drive from Elsfield Way to the Headington roundabout. They headed for the Examinations Board, suspecting to find there an accomplice to Evans.
Question - 17 : - How did the Governor realize that they had mistaken Evans to be McLeery?
Answer - 17 : -
On being told by Carter, that the parson had been taken to the hospital from the Examination Board, he called to confirm at the Radcliffe. To his shock, the hospital staff said that McLeery had not been admitted there. The hospital claimed to have sent an ambulance which had failed to trace McLeery. It was only then that the realization dawned on the Governor how Evans had managed to pose as the injured McLeery.
Question - 18 : - Where was Evans after his escape from the prison?
Answer - 18 : -
Evans was at a hotel, Golden Lion, dressed smartly in a smart new hat to conceal his hair that he had cropped so closely. When the narrative returns to him, he was seen directing the receptionist to send him the morning papers.
Question - 19 : - How was Evans apprehended the last time? How did he outsmart the police again?
Answer - 19 : -
When Evans entered his hotel room to find the Governor, he made no effort to avoid being caught, and unravelled his plan, good-naturedly to the Governor. Following which, a prison officer handcuffed Evans and took him to the prison van. As the prison van turned right from Chipping Norton on to the Oxford Road, the ‘prison officer’ who had been silent till then unlocked the handcuffs and revealed himself to be yet another accomplice of Evans. Evans managed to stage his last escape by having an impostor stage the act of a police officer.
Question - 20 : - What did the police in Oxford Prison think about James Evans?
Answer - 20 : -
The Governor of Oxford Prison felt that Evans was not a violent criminal. He found him to be a pleasant and an amusing character. Evans was not a violent sort of person and there was no record of his violence. In fact, he was considered quite a pleasant sort of chap. He was also an entertaining person and was one of the stars at the Christmas concert where he did imitations like that of the comedian Mike Yarwood. He was an incorrigible kleptomaniac and had an obsessive impulse to steal regardless of economic need.
Evans was called “Evans the Break” by the prison officers. He had thrice escaped from prison, and would not have been in Oxford Prison but for the recent wave of unrest in the maximum-security establishments in the north. Tight security kept Evans behind the bars. The Governor, personally, made sure that he did no such thing that would shame them. But, Evans was viewed as real trouble. His presence was persistently irritating to the jail authorities. The Governor doubted Evans’ interest in O-level German and thought it was a ruse to break out of prison again.