Not one of them had half the spunk of this or that burglar he had known.

Not half--not one-tenth.
At headquarters the Chief Inspector was admitted at once to the Assistant Commissioner's private room.

He found him, pen in hand, bent over a great table bestrewn with papers, as if worshipping an enormous double inkstand of bronze and crystal.

Speaking tubes resembling snakes were tied by the heads to the back of the Assistant Commissioner's wooden arm-chair, and their gaping mouths seemed ready to bite his elbows.

And in this attitude he raised only his eyes, whose lids were darker than his face and very much creased.