right across in trying to open it, then
flung it on the floor. On the other side of the door, Chief Inspector Heat was
saying to Mr. Verloc, the secret agent:
    »So your defence will be practically a full confession?«
    »It will. I am going to tell the whole story.«
    »You won't be believed as much as you fancy you will.«
    And the Chief Inspector remained thoughtful. The turn this affair was taking
meant the disclosure of many things - the laying waste of fields of knowledge,
which, cultivated by a capable man, had a distinct value for the individual and
for the society. It was sorry, sorry meddling. It would leave Michaelis
unscathed; it would drag to light the Professor's home industry; disorganize the
whole system of supervision; make no end of a row in the papers, which, from
that point of view, appeared to him by a sudden illumination as invariably
written by fools for the reading of imbeciles. Mentally he agreed with the words
Mr. Verloc let fall at last in answer to his last remark.
    »Perhaps not. But it will upset many things. I have been a straight man, and
I shall keep straight in this -«
    »If they let you,« said the Chief Inspector, cynically. »You will be
preached to, no doubt, before they put you into the dock. And in the end you may
yet get let in for a sentence that will surprise you. I wouldn't trust too much
the gentleman who's been talking to you.«
    Mr. Verloc listened, frowning.
    »My advice to you is to clear out while you may. I have no instructions.
There are some of them,« continued Chief Inspector Heat, laying a peculiar
stress on the word them, »who think you are already out of the world.«
    »Indeed!« Mr. Verloc was moved to say. Though since his return from
Greenwich he had spent most of his time sitting in the tap-room of an obscure
little public-house, he could hardly have hoped for such favourable news.
    »That's the impression about you.« The Chief Inspector nodded at him.
»Vanish. Clear out.«
    »Where to?« snarled Mr. Verloc. He raised his head, and gazing at the closed
door of the parlour, muttered feelingly: »I only wish you would take me away
to-night. I would go quietly.«
    »I daresay,« assented sardonically the Chief Inspector, following