he most perfect _incognito_,
fortunate if they succeed in attaining the age of retirement without
being crippled by some malicious stroke! Remember that they are obliged
to carry out their task without arms, without any brutality. A bandit
injured in a hand-to-hand struggle assumes very quickly the character of
an interesting victim, and there are always to be found sensational
newspapers that will exploit his woes under flaming head-lines: 'Another
Police Outrage!' 'A Brutal Police Agent!' etc.

"The problem that presents itself is, therefore, this one: 'To get in
your power, in exposing yourself as little as possible, and without
doing him any injury, a blackguard who is armed and who is capable of
anything.'"

And he proceeds to explain the very simple tricks and tools by means of
which this somewhat difficult task is accomplished. In the first place,
he states a curious psychological fact,--that, generally, any criminal,
no matter how dangerous or brutal, if suddenly arrested by surprise, is
for the moment so stupefied that he does not think of resistance, and in
this moment may be secured, by the handcuffs or otherwise. This brief
paralysis is apt to be succeeded by a furious outbreak, but in the
majority of cases it is then too late. Were it not for this temporary
catalepsy, how would it be possible, asks M. Tomel, to effect the arrest
of such desperate fellows, dynamiters and anarchists, with no more
bloodshed and fracas than if they were girls of the town! This little
peculiarity of their clients is well known to the police agents, and
they but very seldom fail to take advantage of it.

In the second place, the most dangerous offenders are not, as might be
supposed, the hardened criminals, those who have repeatedly fallen into
the hands of Justice. For them, a long experience has convinced them
that, once caught, there is no escape. Neither are the assassins the
most to be feared,--the sudden collaring by the iron hand of the law
reduces them to temporary imbecility. Those whose arrest is usually
attended with the greatest difficulty are young rascals in their first
offence, and those who are accustomed to being rescued by a band of
their companions. Bankrupts and ruined financiers are also apt to give
trouble,--they take to their revolvers with "deplorable facility, quite
ready to lodge the last bullet in their own heads if the others have not
cleared the field for them."

[Illustration: SCENE IN THE CELL O