ortantly into the shop.

Green, who had just lit a well-worn brier pipe, and was waiting for the
assistant to return in order to pay him the value of the notes, smiled
grimly at the apparition of the constable in uniform. He guessed exactly
what had happened.

"This is the man?" asked the police officer. The tailor nodded, and he
went on, addressing Green, "What's this about you taking money and
pretending to be a police officer?" He had produced an official notebook
and looked very important as he loomed in the doorway, gazing sternly at
the detective. "Don't answer any questions unless you want to. You know
I shall have to take anything you say down in writing, and it may be
used as evidence against you."

The situation had a piquant humour that tickled Green. The constable was
strictly within his duty, as he had been called in, but the pomposity of
his manner betokened that he was very, very young in the service. In a
deliberate silence the detective felt in his pocket for a warrant-card
that would clear up the mistake. A moment later he was wildly searching
in all his pockets without success. For the first time in a lifetime in
the service he must have been careless enough to leave it at home.

He flourished a number of envelopes inscribed "Chief Detective-Inspector
Green, New Scotland Yard, S.W.," but the knowing look of the young
constable was emphasised by the cock of the eyebrows. Green never
carried official documents except when he was obliged to.

"That won't do, old chap," said the constable, in the manner of one well
used to the ways of the criminal fraternity. "You don't come that on me.
You might have written those envelopes yourself. You'll have to come
along."

If the letters had failed to impress him, Green felt certain that his
visiting-card would be of little use. Since he had decided to visit the
police station in any case, it did not much matter. It was humiliating,
in a way, but it did not much matter.

"All right, my man," he said authoritatively. "I'll see the station
officer. Send for a cab."

"Cool hand, isn't it?" whispered the policeman to the tailor. "See how
he's dropped trying to pull off his bluff on me. Just hop out and see if
you can find a cab. I'll keep an eye on him."

So it was that a high official of the Criminal Investigation Department
reached an outlying police station under the conduct of a young
constable whose swelling pride was soon reduced to abject misery as the