facts, Field?"

"Yes, sir," said the distressed looking man who stood before him.

"I think I had the pleasure of putting you through," added the inspector.

The butler understood that in police slang "putting a man through" meant
arresting him and putting him through the Criminal Court into gaol. He
made the same reply:

"Yes, sir."

"I'm glad to see you bear me no ill-will for it," said Inspector
Chippenfield. "You don't, do you?"

"No, sir."

"I never forget a face," pursued the officer, glancing up at the face of
the man before him. "When I saw you yesterday I knew you again in a
moment, and when I went back to the Yard I looked up your record."

The butler was doubtful whether any reply was called for, but after a
pause, as an endorsement of the inspector's gift for remembering faces,
he ventured on:

"Yes, sir."

"And how did you, an ex-convict, come to get into the service of one of
His Majesty's judges?"