Our fellows have got to slip away quietly in twos and threes.

We can't tell whether we're not being watched this minute.' There was a note of sincerity in the Captain's voice which convinced Hyacinth that he was genuinely frightened at the thought of having a policeman on his track.

Miss Goold, too, looked appropriately solemn at the suggestion.

As a matter of fact, the authorities in Dublin Castle did occasionally send a detective in plain clothes to walk after her.
It is not conceivable that they suspected her of wanting to blow up Nelson's pillar or assassinate a judge.

Probably they merely wished to exercise the members of the force, and, in the absence of any actual crime in the country, felt that no harm could come to anyone through the 'shadowing' of Miss Goold.