Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/188

172 the officers, who know them, from that circumstance, and from walking singly, one after another, occasionally stopping, overtaking, and talking together with apparently great interest: then they divide, and enter the shop just agreed upon, by one or two at a time, as before described. If the shopkeepers were to adopt the precaution we gave a little higher up, they would be able to know in a minute or two what they had lost; and thus contribute to the instant detection of the offenders, by immediately informing the officers what goods had been stolen; for these active men run into the shops as soon as the thieves leave them, to enquire what has been missed? A question which the shopmen seldom answer in the affirmative,—for the stupids really do not know; more shame for them!

In the same way it is the officers find out the

Or passers of bad money; many of whom are identically the same as the shop-lifters. But the difference in the keenness of the pursuit is most apparent: the reward upon conviction of the latter description being more liberal and more