pt for cautioning his mother and
sister to "draw off" from the undesirable connection, and intimidating
the maid-of-all-work at Number 6, Dull Street, by most horrible threats
of the penalties of the law, to detain and give to him every letter
bearing the Liverpool postmark which should from that time forward come
to the house, no matter to whom addressed--for in his zeal it was easy
to forget that by such a proceeding he was sailing uncommonly close to
the wind himself--showed no sign of taking any immediate step either in
this or any other matter.

Had he been aware that one Sniff, of the Liverpool detective police, had
some days ago arrived, by a series of independent and far more artistic
investigations, at as much knowledge as he himself possessed of the
doings of the Corporation, Samuel would probably have been content to
make the most of the cards he held before the chance of using them at
all had slipped by.

It is doubtful, however, whether in any case he would have succeeded in
forestalling the wary Mr Sniff. That gentleman had discovered in a few
hours what it had taken Samuel days of patient grubbing to unearth. And
his discoveries would have decidedly astonished the self-complacent
little practitioner. He would have been astonished, for instance, to
hear that the Liverpool post-office had received instructions from the
Home Office to hand over every letter addressed to Cruden Reginald, 13,
Shy Street, to the police. He would also have been astonished if he had
known that a detective in plain clothes dined every evening at the
Shades, near to the table occupied by Mr Durfy and his friends; that
the hall-porter of Weaver's Hotel was a representative of the police in
disguise, and that representatives of the police had called on business
at the _Rocket_ office, had brushed up against Blandford at street-
corners, and had even taken the trouble to follow him--Samuel
Shuckleford--here and there in his evening's perambulations.

Yes, small job as it was in Mr Sniff's estimation, he knew the way to
go about it, and had a very good notion what was the right scent to go
on and what the wrong.

The one thing that did put him out at first was Reginald's absolutely
truthful replies to all the pleasant clergyman's questions. This really
did bother Mr Sniff. For when a swindler is face to face with his
victim the very last thing you expect of him is straightforward honesty.
So when Reginald had talked about Wea