'But I suppose not many people do that.'
'Oh, yes, they do—lots of them. A man saves his hotel bills if he goes straight to the train, and there is only one move; but, of course, that is only when a man has quite made up his mind where he is going. As a rule, when a Britisher comes here he waits a few days and asks questions, and tries to find out about things, unless he is going somewhere straight to a friend. Is that boy looking for you? he has been standing there staring at you for the last five minutes.'
'Oh, yes, that is my servant. Will you give me the address of the Central Police Station?'
The clerk wrote the address on a piece of paper and handed it to him.
'I don't think you will get much good from them,' he said. 'When people want to hunt a man up here they generally go to an agency. They are a way ahead of the regular police, and have got some smart fellows among them, I can tell you.'
'Thank you. I should prefer carrying out the matter myself if I can. If not I will certainly go to an agency.'
'There is one advantage in going to the police first,' the man said. 'You will find at a good many hotels the people will have nothing to say to you if you go by yourself. It is no business of theirs whether the people who stay at their hotels are swindlers or not, and they ain't going to meddle in it; but if you can get the police to give you a sharp officer to go round with you it will be a different thing altogether.'
'Yes, that is what I thought myself, and why I am going to the police in the first place.'
Turning from the desk he joined Jacob.
'You have had your breakfast?' he asked.