attempting to escape. An unsavoury, sordid drama, but
it is treated in the same cool, business-like way as the other trivial
charges.

"I only meant to hurt him," says the girl, and she is led away by the
matron. I may as well finish the story here. The man she had stabbed
died in hospital, and she was charged with murder. Eventually she was
found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment.

In the intervals of taking charges, there are other things to be done.
There is a woman half hysterical because her daughter is missing. A
couple of people walk in to hand over a gold match box and a purse found
in the streets. These things have to be entered in official documents
for prompt communication to headquarters.

The tape machine rattles out a report of an outbreak of foot-and-mouth
disease in Surrey, and fresh orders relative to the passage of cattle
through London. This will have to be made known to the reliefs when they
go out.

A constable hurries in with the report that a window in a certain big
business firm's premises is open. A man has been left to guard it.

The inspector is a little impatient. "They're always leaving windows
open," he says, and gives a few instructions. Half a dozen men are sent
out to surround the place, while a search is made for possible burglars.
Of course, there are none. The window has been left open by a careless
clerk, which was what the police knew all along, but they could take no
risks.

Several of the cells are occupied now. There are about a dozen of them
all told. You pass through a locked door from the charge-room into a
wide, stone-flagged corridor, lined on each side with massive doors.
Swing back one of these doors, and you will enter a high pitched room
with a barred window at the farther end, and a broad plank running down
one side, the full length of the cell. This serves either as a seat or a
bed. Washable mattresses and pillows are served out at night-time, and I
can imagine that, if lonely, the cells are not uncomfortable. The doors
lock automatically as they are swung to. There is an electric bell in
each cell which communicates directly with the inspector's room. Thus
the senior officers are made responsible for sending to answer a
prisoner's ring.

Besides these cells there are a couple of large apartments--technically
also cells--where a large number of prisoners may be kept together. They
are often useful when suffrage demonstrators are o