CHAPTER V

Detectives and Others


A Detective, according to the dictionaries, is one "whose
occupation it is to discover matters as to which information
is desired, particularly wrong-doers, and to obtain evidence
to be used against them." A private detective, by the same
authority, is one "engaged unofficially in obtaining secret
information for or guarding the private interests of those who
employ him." The definition emphasizes the official character
of detectives in general as contrasted with those whose
services may be enlisted for hire by the individual citizen,
but the distinction is of little importance, since it is based
arbitrarily upon the character of the employer (whether the
State or a private client) instead of upon the nature of the
employment itself, which is the only thing which is likely to
interest us about detectives at all.

The sanctified tradition that a detective was an agile
person with a variety of side-whiskers no longer obtains
even in light literature, and the most imaginative of us
is frankly aware of the fact that a detective is just a
common man earning (or pretending to earn) a common living
by common and obvious means. Yet in spite of ourselves
we are accustomed to attribute superhuman acuteness and a