*    *    *    *    *

It did not require a deal of keeping. Battersea may have its tough citizens, but they
do not live in Battersea Park Road. Battersea Park Road's specialty is Brain, not Crime.
Authors, musicians, newspaper men, actors and artists are the inhabitants of these
mansions. A child could control them. They assault and batter nothing but pianos;
they steal nothing but ideas; they murder nobody except Chopin and Beethoven.
Not through these shall an ambitious young constable achieve promotion.

*    *    *    *    *

Constable Plimmer paced upon his way, a blue-clad volcano.

*    *    *    *    *

He snatched the letter with what was meant to be a debonair gaiety, and only
succeeded in looking like an angry gorilla. The girl uttered a startled squeak.

*    *    *    *    *

It disabled her, as the wild thrust of an unskilled fencer will disable a master
of the rapier. She searched in her mind and found she had nothing to say.

*    *    *    *    *

He heard her draw a deep breath, and silence fell on them again.
The dog down the road had stopped barking. The woman in the flat
had stopped singing. They were curiously alone.

*    *    *    *    *