These thoughts flitted through the mind of the detective as he
gazed upon the pale sad features of the suffering wife, and for a moment
he regretted the profession which he had adopted. It is a common error,
I fear, to imagine that a detective is devoid of those finer feelings
which animate humanity, and to credit him with only the hard, stern and
uncompromising ideas of duty which only appear upon the surface. This is
a grave mistake, and does gross injustice to many noble men and women,
who, in my own experience, have developed some of the most delicate and
noble traits of which human nature is capable. It is true, their duty is
hard and unyielding, its imperative requirements must be rigidly
observed; but many a criminal to-day has urgent reasons to be thankful
to the man who was instrumental in bringing him to account for the
crimes he had committed. Many a convict's wife and children are the
recipients of kindly actions from the very men whose duty it was to
deprive them, by a legal process, of a husband and father. This may seem
strange and incredible, but from my own experience I can testify to its
absolute truthfulness. With the capture of the criminal the detective's
duty ceases, and all the sympathetic promptings of his nature have full
play.
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