THE SILENT BULLET

BY ARTHUR B. REEVE


"Detectives in fiction nearly always make a great mistake," said
Kennedy one evening after a conversation on crime and science. "They
almost invariably antagonize the regular detective force. Now in real
life that's impossible--it's fatal."

"Yes," I agreed, looking up from reading an account of the failure
of a large Wall Street brokerage house, Kerr Parker & Co., and the
peculiar suicide of Kerr Parker. "Yes, it's impossible, just as it is
impossible for the regular detectives to antagonize the newspapers.
Scotland Yard found that out in the Crippen case."

"My idea of the thing, Jameson," continued Kennedy, "is that the
professor of criminal science ought to work with, not against, the
regular detectives. They're all right. They're indispensable, of
course. Half the secret of success nowadays is organization. The
professor of criminal science should be merely what the professor in
a technical school often is--a sort of consulting engineer. For
instance, I believe that organization plus science would go far toward
clearing up that Wall Street case I see you are reading."

I expressed some doubt as to whether the regular police were
enlightened enough to take that view of it.