or no, sat there, as if lost in a
dream. Moreover, besides being legal and expedient, the arrest of
Michaelis solved a little personal difficulty which worried Chief
Inspector Heat somewhat. This difficulty had its bearing upon his
reputation, upon his comfort, and even upon the efficient performance of
his duties. For, if Michaelis no doubt knew something about this
outrage, the Chief Inspector was fairly certain that he did not know too
much. This was just as well. He knew much less--the Chief Inspector was
positive--than certain other individuals he had in his mind, but whose
arrest seemed to him inexpedient, besides being a more complicated
matter, on account of the rules of the game. The rules of the game did
not protect so much Michaelis, who was an ex-convict. It would be stupid
not to take advantage of legal facilities, and the journalists who had
written him up with emotional gush would be ready to write him down with
emotional indignation.

This prospect, viewed with confidence, had the attraction of a personal
triumph for Chief Inspector Heat. And deep down in his blameless bosom
of an average married citizen, almost unconscious but potent
nevertheless, the dislike of being compelled by events to meddle with the
desperate ferocity of the Professor had its say. This dislike had been
strengthened by the chance meeting in the lane. The encounter did not
leave behind with Chief Inspector Heat that satisfactory sense of
superiority the members of the police force get from the unofficial but
intimate side of their intercourse with the criminal classes, by which
the vanity of power is soothed, and the vulgar love of domination over
our fellow-creatures is flattered as worthily as it deserves.

The perfect anarchist was not recognised as a fellow-creature by Chief
Inspector Heat. He was impossible--a mad dog to be left alone. Not that
the Chief Inspector was afraid of him; on the contrary, he meant to have
him some day. But not yet; he meant to get hold of him in his own time,
properly and effectively according to the rules of the game. The present
was not the right time for attempting that feat, not the right time for
many reasons, personal and of public service. This being the strong
feeling of Inspector Heat, it appeared to him just and proper that this
affair should be shunted off its obscure and inconvenient track, leading
goodness knows where, into a quiet (and lawful) siding called Michaelis.