g by it."

"Meantime it's you who get something from it--so far. And you get it
easily, too. I won't speak of your salary, but haven't you made your
name simply by not understanding what we are after?"

"What are you after, then?" asked Chief Inspector Heat, with scornful
haste, like a man in a hurry who perceives he is wasting his time.

The perfect anarchist answered by a smile which did not part his thin
colourless lips; and the celebrated Chief Inspector felt a sense of
superiority which induced him to raise a warning finger.

"Give it up--whatever it is," he said in an admonishing tone, but not so
kindly as if he were condescending to give good advice to a cracksman of
repute. "Give it up. You'll find we are too many for you."

The fixed smile on the Professor's lips wavered, as if the mocking spirit
within had lost its assurance. Chief Inspector Heat went on:

"Don't you believe me eh? Well, you've only got to look about you. We
are. And anyway, you're not doing it well. You're always making a mess
of it. Why, if the thieves didn't know their work better they would
starve."

The hint of an invincible multitude behind that man's back roused a
sombre indignation in the breast of the Professor. He smiled no longer
his enigmatic and mocking smile. The resisting power of numbers, the
unattackable stolidity of a great multitude, was the haunting fear of his
sinister loneliness. His lips trembled for some time before he managed
to say in a strangled voice:

"I am doing my work better than you're doing yours."

"That'll do now," interrupted Chief Inspector Heat hurriedly; and the
Professor laughed right out this time. While still laughing he moved on;
but he did not laugh long. It was a sad-faced, miserable little man who
emerged from the narrow passage into the bustle of the broad
thoroughfare. He walked with the nerveless gait of a tramp going on,
still going on, indifferent to rain or sun in a sinister detachment from
the aspects of sky and earth. Chief Inspector Heat, on the other hand,
after watching him for a while, stepped out with the purposeful briskness
of a man disregarding indeed the inclemencies of the weather, but
conscious of having an authorised mission on this earth and the moral
support of his kind. All the inhabitants of the immense town, the
population of the whole country, and even the teeming millions struggling
upon the planet, were with him--down to the very thieves and m