il--a laundry mark worked in red thread
on her dressing jacket. The mark was read as E.U.X.A.O.Z., and these
letters were advertised far and wide. Then the President of the Laundry
Association examined the garment, and conclusively showed that the
marks really represented E.48992. It was, he declared, not a laundry
mark at all, but a dyers and cleaners' mark. And this was what it proved
to be.

While the experts are busy the divisional inspector and his men are no
less so. They are making a kind of gigantic snowball enquiry, working
backwards from the persons immediately available. A. has little to say
himself, but there are B. and C. who, he knows, were connected with the
murdered person. And B. and C. having been questioned speak of D. E. F.
and G.; and it may be that a score or more persons have been interviewed
ere one is found who can supply some vital fact. I have known a murder
investigation held up a couple of hours while search was being made for
someone to supply the address of some other person who _might_ know
something.

All very tedious this, and very different from the methods of the
detectives we read about. But then the detectives of fiction somehow
avoid the chance of the flaws in their deductions being sought out by
astute cross-examining counsel.

If a description of the suspected murderer is available a telegraphist
working at Scotland Yard will get it, with the letters "A.S." (all
stations) attached. As he taps his instrument the message is
automatically ticked out simultaneously at every station in the
metropolis.

The great railway termini are watched, and men are thrown to the
outlying stations as a second safeguard. Should the man slip through
this net he will find England locked from port to port. The C.I.D. have
their own men at many ports, and at others the co-operation of the
provincial police is enlisted. He is lucky indeed if he gets away after
the hue and cry has been raised.

There are no chances taken. Everything is put on record, whether it
appears relevant or irrelevant to the enquiry. In the Registry--a kind
of clerical bureau of the Criminal Investigation Department--every
statement, every report is neatly typed, filed in a book with all
relating to the case, and indexed. It remains available just so long as
the crime is unsolved--ten days or ten years. The progress of the case
is always shown to within an hour.

No effort is spared to get on the track of the murderer while