search of a criminal of whom he had but the meagrest and
most unsatisfactory particulars, and whom he scarcely hoped ever to run
down, actually _fell over_ the man as he was leaving the office where he
had received his information, in the doorway of which the fellow had
stooped to tie his shoe-lace! But, as Hewitt would say, nothing but the
exceptional nature of the surrounding circumstances makes these things
seem extraordinary. What more ordinary experience, for example, than to
meet a friend in some London street--perhaps one friend of the only
dozen or so you have among the four millions of people about you? The
odds against you two, of all the millions, choosing the one street of
the thousands in London to walk down at the same minute of time, would
seem incalculable; and yet the chance comes off so often as to be a
matter of the most ordinary experience.

On this occasion I was expecting orders from my editor to produce
certain articles on the subject of the London hospitals. It will be
remembered that the matter was very much in the air a few years ago, and
as nothing is professionally more uncomfortable than to be called on
suddenly for an accurate and reasonable leading article on a subject one
knows nothing about, I wrote to my friend, Barton McCarthy, who is
house-surgeon at St. Augustine's, and he replied by an offer to tell me
anything I cared to ask if I would call at the hospital.

I set out accordingly some little time after a breakfast even later than
ordinary, and called in at Hewitt's office on my way downstairs, to say
that I should not be lunching at our usual place that day.

"No," Hewitt answered, "nor shall I, I expect. I'm off to the City, at
once. I have an urgent message to go immediately to Kingsley, Bell and
Dalton's, in Broad Street, where a big bond robbery has just been
discovered. Perhaps I can give you a lift in my cab?"

We hurried off together accordingly. Hewitt knew nothing of the case he
had to examine, and so could tell me nothing, beyond the short urgent
request that he would come at once, and that the matter involved the
loss of bonds to a very large amount; and he dropped me at a convenient
spot, whence my walk to the hospital was but a short one.

I saw my friend McCarthy, and bothered him very successfully for nearly
an hour, getting all the information I had expected, and more, during a
very interesting walk through the great hospital.

"You get some idea in a place li