selling in the streets, and the Professor was on his way to the police-court. He had been told the case would not come on before twelve. As his taxi threaded its way jerkily westward, he caught glimpses of the placards of the noon edition of The Evening Mail, bearing such sensational lines as: 

 MESMERISM EXTRAORDINARY AN AMAZING CAPTURE ALLEGED BURGLAR HYPNOTISED 

 

 He smiled pleasantly as he pictured his reception that evening, as an extra turn, at one of the big music-halls. 

 He fell to speculating as to how much he should demand, and to which manager he should offer his services.  "The Napoleon of Mesmerists," was the title he had decided to adopt. Again the Professor smiled amiably as he thought of the column of description with headlines in The Evening Mail. He had indeed achieved success. 

 

 III 

 The drowsy atmosphere of the West London Police Court oppressed even the prisoners. They came, heard, and departed; protagonists for a few minutes in a drama, then oblivion. The magistrate was cross, the clerk husky, and the police anxiously deferential, for one of their number had that morning been severely censured for being unable to discriminate between the effects upon the human frame of laudanum and whisky. 

 Nobody was interested—there was nothing in which to be interested—and there was less oxygen than usual in the court, the magistrate had a cold. It was a miserable business, this detection and punishing of crime. 

 "Twenty shillings costs, seven days," snuffled the presiding genius. 

 A piece of human flotsam faced about and disappeared. 

 Another name was called. The sergeant in charge of the new case cleared his throat. The magistrate lifted his handkerchief to his nose, the clerk removed his spectacles to wipe them, when something bounded into the dock, drawing up two other somethings behind it. 

 The magistrate paused, his handkerchief held to his nose, the clerk dropped his spectacles, the three reporters became eagerly alert—in short, the whole court awakened simultaneously from its apathy to the knowledge that this was a dramatic moment. 

 In the dock stood a medium-sized man with nondescript features, a thin black 

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