The document in question is to be addressed to you.  It is to be not only a daily report, but an hourly report as well, when circumstances may require it.  All statements which I send to you, in this way, you are, as I understand, expected to examine carefully before you seal them up and send them in to the higher authorities.  The object of my writing and of your examining what I have written is, I am informed, to give me, as an untried hand, the benefit of your advice, in case I want it (which I venture to think I shall not) at any stage of my proceedings.  As the extraordinary circumstances of the case on which I am now engaged make it impossible for me to absent myself from the place where the robbery was committed, until I have made some progress towards discovering the thief, I am necessarily precluded from consulting you personally.  Hence the necessity of my writing down the various details, which might, perhaps, be better communicated by word of mouth.  This, if I am not mistaken, is the position in which we are now placed.  I state my own impressions on the subject, in writing, in order that we may clearly understand each other at the outset,—­and have the honor to remain your obedient servant,

Matthew Sharpin.

FROM CHIEF INSPECTOR THEAKSTONE TO MR. MATTHEW SHARPIN.

London, 5th July, 18—.

Sir,

You have begun by wasting time, ink, and paper.  We both of us perfectly well knew the position we stood in towards each other, when I sent you with my letter to Sergeant Bulmer.  There was not the least need to repeat it in writing.  Be so good as to employ your pen, in future, on the business actually in hand.  You have now three separate matters on which to write me.  First, you have to draw up a statement of your instructions received from Sergeant Bulmer, in order to show us that nothing has escaped your memory, and that you are thoroughly acquainted with all the circumstances of the case which has been entrusted to you.  Secondly, you are to inform me what it is you propose to do.  Thirdly, you are to report every inch of your progress, (if you make any,) from day to day, and, if need be, from hour to hour as well.  This is your duty.  As to what my duty may be, when I want you to remind me of it, I will write and tell you so.  In the mean time I remain yours,

Francis Theakstone.

FROM MR. MATTHEW SHARPIN TO CHIEF INSPECTOR THEAKSTONE.

London, 6th July, 18—.

Sir,

You are rather an elderly person, and, as such, naturally inclined to be a little jealous of men like me, who are in the prime of their lives and their faculties.  Under these circumstances, it is my duty to be considerate towards you, and not to bear too hardly on your small failings.  I decline, therefore, altogether, to take offence at the tone of your letter; I give you the full benefit of the natural generosity of my nature; I sponge the very existence of your surly communication out of my memory; in short, Chief Inspector Theakstone, I forgive you, and proceed to business.