been
known as Herr Siegesmann, the chief superintendent, entered. He was a
heavy man of ponderous proportions, with Dundreary whiskers and a
pompous manner. His entrance brought him directly into the line of
Giuseppi Antonio Tolmenicino's attack. Before he could take in the
situation, the Italian's head, covered with tomato soup and bristling
with whitebait, caught him full in the centre of his person, and he
went down with a sobbing grunt, the Italian on top of him.

The shock released a considerable portion of the food adhering to
Giuseppi Antonio Tolmenicino on to the chief superintendent. Whitebait
forsook the ebon locks of the waiter and dived into the magnificent
Dundrearys of Herr Smith, and on his shirt-front was the impression of
Giuseppi Antonio Tolmenicino's features in tomato soup.

Without a moment's hesitation Giuseppi Antonio Tolmenicino was on his
feet once more; but Bindle, feeling that the time had arrived for
action, was equally quick. Taking him from behind by the collar he
worked his right arm up as high as it would go behind his back. The
Italian screamed with the pain; but Bindle held fast.

"You ain't safe to be trusted about, ole sport," he remarked, "an' I
got to 'old you, until Ole Whiskers decides wot's goin' to be done.
You'll get six months for wastin' food like this. Why, you looks like
a bloomin' restaurant. Look at 'im!" Bindle gazed down at the
prostrate superintendent. "Knocked 'is wind out, you 'ave. Struck 'im
bang in the solar-plexus, blowed if you didn't!"

With rolling eyes and foaming mouth Giuseppi Antonio Tolmenicino
screamed his maledictions. A group of waiters was bending over Herr
Smith. One was administering brandy, another was plucking whitebait
out of his whiskers, a third was trying to wipe the tomato soup from
his shirt-front, an operation which transformed a red archipelago into
a flaming continent.

When eventually the superintendent sat up, he looked like a whiskered
robin redbreast. He gazed from one to the other of the waiters engaged
upon his renovation. Then his eye fell upon Giuseppi Antonio
Tolmenicino. He uttered the one significant British word.

"Berlice!"

When Giuseppi Antonio Tolmenicino left Napolini's that evening, it was
in the charge of two policemen, with two more following to be prepared
for eventualities. Giuseppi Antonio Tolmenicino was what is known
professionally as "violent." Not satisfied with the food that was
plastered upon his pers