ly laying out the
work to-night."

CHAPTER XIX

HOW LONDON BILL TOOK A PAL

Perhaps the golden rule of all detective work is, Never let the detected
one detect. Inspector Val was alive to this ordinance of his craft, and
an hour later, when Storri cautiously emerged from the drain, he met
neither sign nor sound of Inspector Val and Mr. Duff. Feeling sure that
his exploration had not been observed, Storri wended homeward to his
rooms, his chin sunk in meditation.

Storri the next day went to New York, and immediately on arrival at that
hotel which he designed to honor with his custom he sprang into a
hansom, and within ten minutes was at a private-detective agency, being
the one whereat he aforetime procured those spies to set about the
Harley house--spies long since withdrawn. The head of this detective
bureau was a coarse-visaged, brandy-blotched man named Slater.

"And so," observed Mr. Slater, following a statement of Storri's errand,
"you want to be put next to a 'peter-man, what we call a box-worker?"

"I would like to meet the best in the business," said Storri; "one also
who is acquainted with others in his line, and who can be relied upon to
the death."

"You want something desperate, eh?" said Mr. Slater, in a tone of
suspicion. "Might I ask whether you have a safe to blow or a crib to
crack on your own private account? I'm a cautious man, myself," he
concluded, with a harsh chuckle, "and like to know what I'm getting
mixed up with."

"Your caution is to be commended," returned Storri, "and I'll answer
freely. No, I've no one to rob, no safe to break open. The truth is, I
want to prosecute a search for a certain criminal, and I think a man of
the stamp I wish to meet could help me more than a regular detective
whose person is known and who would be instantly suspected. I'm not
looking to arrest, but only to find a certain man. I shall pay him to
whom you send me for his trouble, and you for putting me in touch with
him."

"It's an irregular thing to do," remarked Mr. Slater, "but I see no
harm."

Mr. Slater rang a bell and asked for Mr. Norris.

"Norris," said Mr. Slater, "this party wants to be put next to London
Bill--wants to be made solid with Bill. That's as far as you go."

"All right," said Mr. Norris. Then addressing Storri: "If you come now,
I think I can locate your man in fifteen minutes."

Storri and Mr. Norris drove to a doggery near the East River, in the
vicinity of Jame