"Yes. But why Hutchins Burley? What am I to Burley, or Burley to me? Why should that horrible wretch be commissioned to persecute me? Why was he destined to snap the bond of comradeship between Henriette and me? He isn’t exactly one’s notion of a social censor, is he?" "A scavenger isn’t a popular notion of a sweet and clean man. Yet he serves a public purpose." "What an extraordinary analogy!" "Not at all. You see, Janet, we moderns are too squeamish or too lazy to do our necessary dirty work ourselves, dirty work like punishment, for instance. The result is that when some one rashly assails the majesty of one of our institutions, we punish him by proxy. We kill by the hand of the public executioner. We get revenge by the hand of the judge. We dispense poetic justice by the hand of a Hutchins Burley." "Well, Hutchins Burley as society’s Nemesis is a brand new idea to me. I shall need time to let it sink in. But what have I done to deserve so mighty a thing as poetic justice? I haven’t even stolen another woman’s husband. Haven’t I been my own worst enemy, as Laura Jean Libby used to say? Isn’t that vice its own reward?" "Janet, your question is fair. But your voice and your eyes are not. Now I come to think of it, there may after all be a teeny weeny bit to say—no, not on Hutchins Burley’s side—but on Monsieur Anton St. Hilaire’s side." "Mr. Pryor!" "I don’t mean a twentieth part of what I say. But let me say it. You are strong enough to take it straight. To begin with, the enigma of Hutchins Burley: answer me this. Didn’t you of your own free will settle down amongst the Outlaws?" "Yes." "Well, you can’t touch pitch without a little of it sticking to your fingers. But let us consider what you are to do next. It’s a safer topic. We’ve talked unguardedly enough, considering that there’s a dictagraph in the room, put there by no friends of mine." "A dictagraph! Then you’re not a great detective," said Janet, seriously disappointed. Hopefully, she added: "If you are not Sherlock Holmes, perhaps you are Raffles?" "Well, it takes a thief to catch a thief," was the enigmatic reply. He did not tell her that the hiding place of the dictagraph had been located and that Smilo had received instructions to tamper with the instrument as soon as the coast was clear. *III* They took a bus to Janet’s lodgings. Several plans were agreed upon. Chiefly, they were both to write to Cornelia asking her to find a position for Janet in the Paulette establishment.