The most prosaic of men in the pursuit of his ordinary duties, it nevertheless subtly appealed to some half-dormant streak of vanity to have his profession taken romantically when there was no serious work on hand. The inspector nodded and contributed a weighty monosyllable of sympathetic agreement. We take a step and the chance has gone for ever.” “The time is often the present the place the spot beneath our very noses. “And at the right moment,” added Carrados. Well, it seems to me that every big crime done abroad leaves a finger-print here in London-if only, as you say, we look in the right quarter.” A figure of speech, sir, of course, but apt enough, I don’t doubt. I remember reading once in a financial article that every piece of foreign gold had a string from it leading to Threadneedle Street. Bunting, wasn’t it?-kidnapped in broad daylight outside the New York Lyric and here, three weeks later, the dumb girl who chalked the wall at Charing Cross. And the three children of that Chicago millionaire-Cyrus V. “The West Hampstead Lost Memory puzzle and the Baripur bomb conspiracy that might have been smothered if one had known.” Then look at that jade fylfot charm pawned for one-and-three down at the Basin and the use that could have been made of it in the Kharkov ‘ritual murder’ trial.” “A man has a fit in the inquiry office of the Agent-General for British Equatoria, and two hundred and fifty thousand pounds’ worth of faked securities is the result in Mexico. “Ah, you are right, Mr Carrados.” Beedel shook his head sadly, as though perhaps on that occasion someone ought to have looked.
I don’t mean ordinary murders or single-handed burglaries, of course, but”-a modest ring of professional pride betrayed the quiet enthusiast-“real First-Class Crimes.” “But nothing comes of it nine times out of ten, because it’s no one’s particular business to look here or the thing’s been taken up and finished from the other end. “In the right quarter,” contributed Carrados. “ It’s a funny thing, sir,” said Inspector Beedel, regarding Mr Carrados with the pensive respect that he always extended towards the blind amateur, “it’s a funny thing, but nothing seems to go on abroad now but what you’ll find some trace of it here in London if you take the trouble to look.” 1864895 Max Carrados - The Game played in the Dark Ernest Bramah