Stafford King took the extended hand with a little twinkle in his eye.
"I was afraid we shouldn't be able to keep your place for you, Sir Stanley," he said.
Sir Stanley Belcom, First Commissioner of Criminal Intelligence, accentuated his smile.
"Well, Stafford," he drawled, "I've come to see the culminating triumph of your official career."
Stafford King made a little grimace.
"I hope so," he said dryly.
"I hope so, too," said the baronet, "yet—I'll tell you frankly, Stafford, I have a feeling that the ordinary processes of the law are inadequate to trap this organisation. The law has too wide a mesh to deal with the terror which this man exercises. Such men are the only justification of lynch law, the quick, sharp justice which is administered without subtlety and without quibble."
Stafford looked at the other and made no attempt to hide his astonishment.
"You believe in—the Jack o' Judgment?" he asked.
Sir Stanley shot a swift glance at him.