But of one thing we can be abundantly certain without any figures at all, and that is that our present method of administering justice (less the actions of juries than of judges)—­the system taken as a whole—­offers no deterrent to the embryonic or professional criminal.  The administration of justice to-day is not the swift judgment of honest men upon a criminal act, but a clever game between judge and lawyer, in which the action of the jury is discounted entirely and the moves are made with a view to checkmating justice, not in the trial courtroom, but before the appellate tribunal two or three years later.

“My young feller,” said a grizzled veteran of the criminal bar to me long years ago, after our jury had gone out, “there’s lots of things in this game you ain’t got on to yet.  Do you think I care what this jury does?  Not one mite.  I got a nice little error into the case the very first day—­and I’ve set back ever since.  S’pose we are convicted?  I’ll get Jim here [the prisoner] out on a certificate and it’ll be two years before the Court of Appeals will get around to the case.  Meantime Jim’ll be out makin’ money to pay me my fee—­won’t you, Jim?  Then your witnesses, will be gone, and nobody’ll remember what on earth it’s all about.  You’ll be down in Wall Street practicing real law yourself, and the indictment will kick around the office for a year or so, all covered with dust, and then some day I’ll get a friend of mine to come in quietly and move to dismiss.  And it’ll be dismissed.  Don’t you worry!  Why, a thousand other murders will have been committed in this county by the time that happens.  Bless your soul!  You can’t go on tryin’ the same man forever!  Give the other fellers a chance.  You shake your head?  Well, it’s a fact.  I’ve been doin’ it for forty years.  You’ll see.”  And I did.  That may not be why men kill, but perhaps indirectly it may have something to do with it.

CHAPTER V

Detectives and Others

A Detective, according to the dictionaries, is one “whose occupation it is to discover matters as to which information is desired, particularly wrong-doers, and to obtain evidence to be used against them.”  A private detective, by the same authority, is one “engaged unofficially in obtaining secret information for or guarding the private interests of those who employ him.”  The definition emphasizes the official character of detectives in general as contrasted with those whose services may be enlisted for hire by the individual citizen, but the distinction is of little importance, since it is based arbitrarily upon the character of the employer (whether the State or a private client) instead of upon the nature of the employment itself, which is the only thing which is likely to interest us about detectives at all.