Page:Henry Northcote (IA henrynorthcote00snairich).pdf/127

 I ought to be extremely careful to refrain in its presence from the vexed and overmuch discussed question of whether the badinage of its minions is wit, wisdom, humor, or a veritable cesspool of human inanity."

X012 was so much astonished by these words and the forcible mode of their delivery that he pulled his whistle out of his coat, and proceeded to toy with it in an irresolute fashion. Before he had decided to summon aid by blowing it, there appeared round the corner of an adjacent street a second constable, in all essentials of bearing, physique, and mental energy the perfect replica of himself.

"I'm glad you've come, Bill," said X012. "I've got a rum one 'ere. I don't know what he's been drinking, but you should just hear his languidge. Here he was under this lamp, a-purtendin' to read a newspaper at twenty past four by the mornin'."

"Noticed his mug?" said his confrère Z9. "Bob Capper, the 'ousebreaker, who just done in 'is last seven stretch an' was let out on license last Tuesday."

"Got it in one!" said X012, not without enthusiasm. "We 'ad better take him to the station and have 'im searched."

"This is the result of a misplaced jocularity in the presence of professional wits," said Northcote, with an amiability that was viewed with considerable disfavor by both constables. "I hope you will forgive me, my friends. The only excuse I can urge for impinging upon the prerogative of the legal supernumerary, if I may so express myself, is that as one day I am certain to be a judge, I feel