Teddy scowled uneasily and shifted to his feet twirling his soft hat in his hands. He did not know what to make of this dismissal, but he was more than a little suspicious. In his experience divisional detective inspectors did not give up in this way.

“You’re through?” he asked.

“Through for now. I may have to see you again, I hope. Look after yourself.”

Sufficient for the day are the troubles thereof. That was part of Gold Dust Teddy’s philosophy. He did not for an instant suppose that Labar was as generous as he appeared to be⁠—there was certainly something behind this move. But the immediate fact was that he was out of a hole. Whatever happened thereafter could be met from outside a cell.

With a cheerful salute he passed through the door which the inspector unlocked for his benefit, and so through a few odd uniformed police and one or two detectives at whom he leered triumphantly out of the entrance to the station.