Then with such skill in portraiture as he possessed, added to the scientific formula for these matters, he drew a word picture of Billy Bungey, and sent the resulting composition along to the Criminal Record Office with the request that any amendments might be made and a photograph added if possible, before it was sent to the printing department which is one of the subsidiary departments of the Yard.

He dictated a wire to Myson, and began clearing his desk with a mind from which a weight had been lifted. For there was no denying, as Winter had said, that the Larry Hughes business was one that ought to demand his full attention. In the normal way it would have gone to a chief inspector, who would have had no other duties to distract his mind while the case lasted.