“Not as far as I know. Did you ever hear our mutual friend’s receipt for getting rid of a follower?”
“No.”
“When you look behind and find what you suspected is a fact, and the man in the dirty velour hat and shabby raincoat is still hanging a hundred yards behind, saunter to a shop window. In a minute your friend will follow suit a few doors down. Directly he has chosen his window, you find you have seen all you want in your window, and you go along and look in at his window. There you both stay. But sooner or later somebody has to move, and you make sure that he does. Directly he moves off you follow him. By the time he has gone down two streets and found you at his heels he wonders what has happened. At the end of another two streets he makes a bolt for a passing tram. He won’t come on any more expeditions with you.”
“That sounds simple.”
“It wouldn’t do you much good if you stayed all the time in the same place. You’d soon get picked up by somebody else. I’m off.”
“I wanted to hear how you think things are going.”
“I’ve not made up my own mind yet. I’ll tell you next time.”
Without any more fuss he started to walk away down the path, and I let him go. It was some weeks before we saw him again.