m Klondike,
value L12,000. For various plausible reasons he was willing to dispose
of it to them for L2,000. The good, simple-minded souls went to New
York, and handed solid English money to that amount over to Mr. Albert
Blair Hunter, of Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A. For what? A bar of brass
worth perhaps twenty shillings sterling.

Gambling swindles are numerous, seized for the most part on
race-courses. A little tee-to-tum, marked with dice faces, can be
manipulated so as to fall high or low, according to the betting,
irrespective of the person who holds it, so long as he does not know the
secret. There is a board with a dial face and a pointer on a print. The
luckless "punters" cannot tell that it is controlled by a magnetic ring.
Into these mysteries the police are initiated.

The policy of education at the museum is a wise one, for many young
constables, whatever their natural abilities, come fresh to London from
the plough, and no more reliable method of destroying a too trustful
faith in appearances could have been devised than this which shows them
the actual equipment of criminals.

I have deliberately avoided giving too close a description of these
things. Nor have I in any way given a complete description of the
museum.

The mere manuscript catalogue occupies two portly volumes. Each of the
relics contains a story in itself,--a story that has often ended in a
shameful death. To recall them would be beyond the scope of this book.

CHAPTER XIV.

PUBLIC CARRIAGES.

"Keep very still, please. Thank you."

A constable replaced the cap on the lens of a big camera, and with a
sigh of relief a man rose from the chair where he had been seated under
a cardboard number. It was the photograph-room of Scotland Yard, through
which every cab-, omnibus-, and tram-driver, and every conductor has to
pass once in three years. "The Yard" is as careful with a cabman on
licence as with a convict on licence, although for different reasons.
But the chief idea is the same--the safety and comfort of the public.

There are thousands of dossiers stored in the vaults, which give a
complete history of each man holding a licence in connection with a
public vehicle--records of warnings, convictions, medical tests, and so
on. Officially stamped photographs are placed on every document which
passes into a man's possession, so that there can never be cases of
personation, such as I believe have happened many years ago.

It