In an instant his alert mind grasped the
situation. Metaphorically I had been waved aside. I was not there in
any official capacity, and he saw in a moment with what an opaque
intellect he had to deal. The Italian closed his mouth like a steel
trap, and refused to utter a word. Shortly after he was liberated, as
there was no evidence against him. When at last complete proof was in
the tardy hands of the British authorities, the agile Felini was safe
in the Apennine mountains, and today is serving a life sentence in
Italy for the assassination of a senator whose name I have forgotten.
Is it any wonder that I threw up my hands in despair at finding myself
amongst such a people. But this was in the early days, and now that I
have greater experience of the English, many of my first opinions have
been modified.
I mention all this to explain why, in a private capacity, I often did
what no English official would dare to do. A people who will send a
policeman, without even a pistol to protect him, to arrest a desperate
criminal in the most dangerous quarter of London, cannot be
comprehended by any native of France, Italy, Spain, or Germany. When I
began to succeed as a private detective in London, and had accumulated
money enough for my project, I determined not to be hampered by this
unexplainable softness of the English toward an accused person.
Pages:
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65