Detective and mystery stories, English; Police -- Fiction; Short stories
"Because they are sure that if I were to take them into custody, which I
could do, knowing what they are, and present them before a magistrate,
they would all be committed to prison for a month, as rogues and
vagabonds."
"They prefer then to have lost no inconsiderable capital in dress and
dinner, to being laid up in jail."
"Exactly so."
The bell rings, and all five go off into the same carriage to London.
This is a circumstance that actually occurred; and a similar one
happened when the Queen went to Dublin. The mere appearance of one the
Detective officers before a "school" which had transported itself in the
Royal train, spoilt their speculation; for they all found it more
advantageous to return to England in the same steamer with the officer,
than to remain with the certainty of being put in prison for fourteen or
twenty-eight days as rogues and vagabonds.
So thoroughly well acquainted with these men are the Detective officers
we speak of, that they frequently tell what they have been about by the
expression of their eyes and their general manner. This process is aptly
termed "reckoning them up." Some days ago, two skilful officers, whose
personal acquaintance with the swell mob is complete, were walking along
the Strand on other business, when they saw two of the best dressed and
best mannered of the gang enter a jeweller's shop. They waited till they
came out, and, on scrutinising them, were convinced, by a certain
conscious look which they betrayed, that they had stolen something. They
followed them, and in a few minutes something was passed from one to the
other. The officers were convinced, challenged them with the theft, and
succeeded in eventually convicting them of stealing two gold
eye-glasses, and several jeweled rings. "The eye," said our informant,
"is the great detector. We can tell in a crowd what a swell-mobsman is
about by the expression of his eye."
It is supposed that the number of persons who make a trade of thieving
in London is not more than six thousand; of these, nearly two hundred
are first-class thieves or swell-mobsmen, six hundred "macemen," and
trade swindlers, bill-swindlers, dog-stealers, &c.; About forty
burglars, "dancers," "garretteers," and other adepts with the
skeleton-keys. The rest are pickpockets, "gonophs--" mostly young
thieves who sneak into areas, and rob tills--and other pilferers.
To detect and circumvent this fraternity, is the science of
thief-taking. Here, it is, however, impossible to give even an imperfect
notion of the high amount of skill, intelligence, and knowledge,
concentrated in the character of a clever Detective Policeman. We shall
therefore finish the sketch in another part.
Part XII.
A DETECTIVE POLICE PARTY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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