)
We made all needful inquiries, and put the police upon the quest at
once, as always. But no redress was forthcoming. The money, once
paid, could not be recovered. It is a playful little privilege of
Consols that the Government declines under any circumstances to pay
twice over. Charles drove back to Mayfair a crushed and broken man.
I think if Colonel Clay himself could have seen him just then, he
would have pitied that vast intellect in its grief and bewilderment.
After lunch, however, my brother-in-law's natural buoyancy
reasserted itself by degrees. He rallied a little. "Seymour," he
said to me, "you've heard, of course, of the Bertillon system of
measuring and registering criminals."
"I have," I answered. "And it's excellent as far as it goes. But,
like Mrs. Glasse's jugged hare, it all depends upon the initial
step. 'First catch your criminal.' Now, we have never caught
Colonel Clay--"
"Or, rather," Charles interposed unkindly, "when you _did_ catch him,
you didn't hold him."
I ignored the unkindly suggestion, and continued in the same voice,
"We have never secured Colonel Clay; and until we secure him, we
cannot register him by the Bertillon method. Besides, even if we
had once caught him and duly noted the shape of his nose, his chin,
his ears, his forehead, of what use would that be against a man who
turns up with a fresh face each time, and can mould his features
into what form he likes, to deceive and foil us?"
"Never mind, Sey," my brother-in-law said.
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