"Why, Monsieur le Juge d'Instruction, I write for a number of
papers--all over the place--

"Your credentials?"

"I haven't any."

"Oh! How is that?"

"For a newspaper to give you a card, you have to be on its regular
staff."

"Well?"

"Well, I am only an occasional contributor, a free-lance. I send
articles to this newspaper and that. They are published or declined
according to circumstances."

"In that case, what is your name? Where are your papers?"

"My name would tell you nothing. As for papers, I have none."

"You have no paper of any kind to prove your profession!"

"I have no profession."

"But look here, sir," cried the magistrate, with a certain asperity,
"you can't expect to preserve your incognito after introducing
yourself here by a trick and surprising the secrets of the police!"