“I am told,” said the earl, addressing the officer, “that some robber, some unprincipled scoundrel, made an attempt to steal these articles from the inn, either last night or early this morning.” “That is true, my lord, but we were too sharp for him,” said Mr. Wrench, with evident vexation――“much too sharp.” “Oh! it would be adding to the other favours already conferred upon me if you could by any means ascertain who the villain was.” “I will do my best, my lord,” returned Wrench. “Thank you.” “Well, I think, that is all we have to say at present, Wrench,” said Mr. Chicknell. “I will see you later on.” The detective took the hint, bowed, and retired. “Confound it!” he murmured, as he descended the stairs. “Who could have told him of the attempted robbery? ‘Ill news travels fast’ is an old saying, which is borne out in this instance.” For the remainder of the day Peace was actively employed in an endeavour to find out the man who had created such a disturbance at the “Carved Lion” on the preceding evening; but, as he had anticipated, he found this by no means an easy task. The gipsy had got clear off. There were traces of his passage along the high road by the marks of blood which had poured from his wound, but they gradually became fainter, after which they were no longer distinguishable. Wrench had proved himself to be a proficient in that department of his profession known as “thief catching,” but he was by no means sanguine of success in this case. Neither did he care much about it, for he argued that no possible good could accrue by the arrest of the gipsy; certainly, none as far as he (the detective) was concerned. In point of fact, it would be a needless exposure of his own want of caution. Thieves as a rule are remarkably cunning, and to capture them is no easy matter. Captain Fenwick, head constable of Chester, wrote some time back an interesting letter on “Modern Thief-catching.” It is estimated, said he, that there are at large in this country about 40,000 individuals who are either known thieves or under the suspicion of the police; nearly 3000 are yearly liberated from the convict prisons alone; and a large proportion of them are lost in the crowd until they find themselves back in prison again. Considering the influence of these persons on society in the way both of depredation and contamination, it will be readily perceived that thief-catching is a matter of considerable moment. Captain Fenwick in his epistle reviews the various means which have been adopted from time to time to identify depredators, and to save the public from being victimised by habitual criminals. When the telegraph system was adopted it was probably thought that its use by the police would cripple the operations of the professional thief.