It had always been Archie's habit to greet courteously the policemen he
passed at night in the Avenue, little dreaming that the day would come
when he would view the policing of the world with contemptuous disdain.
The Governor spoke of policemen and detectives with pity; they were so
stupid, he said, though he admitted under Archie's cross-examination
that they could be a nuisance at times.

"Make yourself as conspicuous as possible and they're hardly likely to
bother you. There are times, of course, when one must hide, but the
mistake our boys make is in hiding in places where the police can call
them up by telephone and tell them to pay their own taxi fare to the
nearest police station. I call on police chiefs in a purely social way
now and then, and talk to them about the best way of reforming crooks.
It's their philosophy that no crook ever reforms; an absurd idea, of
course. But there's no surer way to ingratiate yourself with a big fat
detective than to ask how you can help poor repentant sinners, which
gives him a chance to discourage you. There's nothing in it, he warns
you. You thank him for his advice and ask him out to lunch. I've bought
expensive dinners for some of the highest priced crime-ferrets in the
game just for the joy of hearing their pessimism. They're all swollen up
with the idea of their superior knowledge of human nature. But it serves
a good purpose to cultivate them, for you're perfectly safe so long as
you listen and don't try to tell them anything."

II

Toward morning the Governor again had recourse to the Elizabethan bards,
then he lapsed suddenly into a meditative mood.

"It's always a bad sign when the season opens with the potting of some
of the comrades. When there's one such catastrophe there are bound to be
others. Now that Hoky's dead you'll hear of the killing of other
burglars. Every householder on the coast will buy himself a gun and wait
for a chance to shoot some misguided stranger he finds collecting
bric-a-brac in the dark watches of the night. But Hoky's death is a loss
to the underworld. At his best he could achieve the impossible. Once he
spent a week on the roof of police headquarters in Cincinnati; really he
did. Good weather and perfectly comfortable; used to stroll down through
the building and go out for food; then back again. Chatted with the
chief of detectives about his own crime, which was holding up the
paymaster of a big factory. Bless me if Hoky didn't b