us must have given you."

Thus casually was I robbed of the opportunity to display my manly form
in uniform to tourists of trains and the Tivoli--tourists, I say,
because the "Zoners" would never have noticed it. But we must all
accept the decrees of fate.

That was the full extent of the Inspector's remarks; no mention
whatever of the sundry little points the recruit is anxious to be
enlightened upon. In government jobs one learns those details by
experience. For the time being there was nothing for me to do but to
descend to the "gum-shoe" desk in Ancon station and sit in the
swivel-chair opposite Lieutenant Long "waiting for orders."

Toward noon a thought struck me. I swung the telephone around and "got"
the Inspector.

"All my junk is up in Empire yet," I remarked.

"All right, tell the desk-man down there to make you out a pass.
Or--hold the wire! As long as you're going out, there's a prisoner over
in Panama that belongs up in Empire. Go over and tell the Chief you
want Tal Fulano."

I wormed my way through the fawning, neck-craning, many-shaded mob of
political henchmen and obsequious petitioners into the sacred hushed
precincts of Panama police headquarters. A paunched "Spigoty" with a
shifty eye behind large bowed glasses, vainly striving to exude dignity
and wisdom, received me with the oily smirk of the Panamanian
office-holder who feels the painful necessity of keeping on outwardly
good terms with all Americans. I flashed my badge and mentioned a name.
A few moments later there was presented to me a sturdy, if somewhat
flabby, young Spaniard carefully dressed and perfumed. We bowed like
life-long acquaintances and, stepping down to the street, entered a
cab. The prisoner, which he was now only in name, was a muscular fellow
with whom I should have fared badly in personal combat. I was wholly
unarmed, and in a foreign land. All those sundry little unexplained
points of a policeman's duty were bubbling up within me. When the
prisoner turned to remark it was a warm day should I warn him that
anything he said would be used against him? When he ordered the driver
to halt before the "Panazone" that he might speak to some friends
should I fiercely countermand the order? What was my duty when the
friends handed him some money and a package of cigars? Suppose he
should start to follow his friends inside to have a drink--but he
didn't. We drove languidly on down the avenue and up into Ancon, where
I heaved a