only to the modes in which they would have
hidden it. They are right in this much, that their own ingenuity is a
faithful representative of that of the mass; but when the cunning of the
individual felon is diverse in character from their own the felon foils
them, of course. This always happens when it is above their own, and
very usually when it is below. They have no variation of principle in
their investigations; at best, when urged by some unusual emergency, by
some extraordinary reward, they extend or exaggerate their old modes of
practice without touching their principles. What, for example, in this
case of D----, has been done to vary the principle of action? What is all
this boring, and probing, and sounding, and scrutinizing with the
microscope, and dividing the surface of the building into registered
square inches; what is it all but an exaggeration of the application of
the one principle or set of principles of search, which are based upon
the one set of notions regarding human ingenuity, to which the Prefect,
in the long routine of his duty, has been accustomed? Do you not see he
has taken it for granted that all men proceed to conceal a letter, not
exactly in a gimlet-hole bored in a chair-leg, but, at least, in some
out-of-the-way hole or corner suggested by the same tenor of thought
which would urge a man to secrete a letter in a gimlet-hole bored in a
chair-leg? And do you not see, also, that such _recherches_ nooks for
concealment are adapted only for ordinary occasions, and would be
adopted only by ordinary intellects; for, in all cases of concealment, a
disposal of the article concealed, a disposal of it in this _recherce_
manner, is, in the very first instance, presumable and presumed; and
thus its discovery depends, not at all upon the acumen, but altogether
upon the mere care, patience, and determination of the seekers; and
where the case is of importance, or, what amounts to the same thing in
the policial eyes, when the reward is of magnitude, the qualities in
question have never been known to fail. You will now understand what I
meant in suggesting that, had the purloined letter been hidden anywhere
within the limits of the Prefect's examination,--in other words, had the
principle of its concealment been comprehended within the principles of
the Prefect,--its discovery would have been a matter altogether beyond
question. This functionary, however, has been thoroughly mystified; and
the remote source