"Generally a clumsy affair; and therefore very easy for a man of your parts. What reason have you?"
"Absolutely none."
"That is, I fancy," said the superintendent, "the thousand pounds of good silver, watches, and rings, are absolutely gone."
"You know my conditions," said the officer: "give me the thing stolen, and I will find to a living certainty the man who stole it; or give me the man who stole it, and I will find you to a dead certainty the thing stolen. But it's a deuced unfortunate thing that a man can't get even a sniff."
"Yes, especially when, as in your case, all his soul is in his nose."
"And with such a reward!" continued the chagrined officer; "scarcely anything so liberal has been offered in my time; but, after all, the reward is nothing—it is the honour of the force and one's character. It is well up for the night anyhow, and I rather think altogether, unless some flash come by telegraph."
"You have no other place you can go to now?" said the superintendent musingly, and not altogether satisfied.
"None," replied the officer resolutely. "I have been out of bed for ten nights—every den scoured, and every 'soup-kitchen'[2] visited, every swell watched and dogged, and every trull searched; I can do no more. It is now eleven, my eyes will hardly hold open, and I request to be allowed to go and rest for the present."
[2] Places for melting plate.
"As you like," replied the superintendent. "We are neither omniscient nor omnipotent."