in his naive duplicity, but none the less dangerous. He took some
finding out. He was physically a big man, too, and (allowing for the difference
of colour, of course) Chief Inspector Heat's appearance recalled him to the
memory of his superior. It was not the eyes nor yet the lips exactly. It was
bizarre. But does not Alfred Wallace relate in his famous book on the Malay
Archipelago how, amongst the Aru Islanders, he discovered in an old and naked
savage with a sooty skin a peculiar resemblance to a dear friend at home?
    For the first time since he took up his appointment the Assistant
Commissioner felt as if he were going to do some real work for his salary. And
that was a pleasurable sensation. »I'll turn him inside out like an old glove,«
thought the Assistant Commissioner, with his eyes resting pensively upon Chief
Inspector Heat.
    »No, that was not my thought,« he began again. »There is no doubt about you
knowing your business - no doubt at all; and that's precisely why I --« He
stopped short, and changing his tone: »What could you bring up against Michaelis
of a definite nature? I mean apart from the fact that the two men under
suspicion - you're certain there were two of them - came last from a railway
station within three miles of the village where Michaelis is living now.«
    »This by itself is enough for us to go upon, sir, with that sort of man,«
said the Chief Inspector, with returning composure. The slight, approving
movement of the Assistant Commissioner's head went far to pacify the resentful
astonishment of the renowned officer. For Chief Inspector Heat was a kind man,
an excellent husband, a devoted father; and the public and departmental
confidence he enjoyed acting favourably upon an amiable nature, disposed him to
feel friendly towards the successive Assistant Commissioners he had seen pass
through that very room. There had been three in his time. The first one, a
soldierly, abrupt, red-faced person, with white eyebrows and an explosive
temper, could be managed with a silken thread. He left on reaching the age
limit. The second, a perfect gentleman, knowing his own and everybody else's
place to a nicety, on resigning to take up a higher appointment cut of England
got decorated for (really) Inspector Heat's services. To work with him had been
a pride and a pleasure. The third, a bit of a dark horse from the first, was at