THREE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING Evans, the police captain of the 23rd Precinct, had a fairly long story to hear from McCulloch.

The roundsman did not spare himself in the recital.

He pleaded guilty to three errors of judgment.

In the first instance, he would have done well had he taken the advice given by Devar during the halt at 42nd Street, and arrested the supposed "Anatole" then and there; secondly, he might have secured corroborative evidence of the cleansing of parts of the automobile--evidence now destroyed by the waters of the Hudson; and, thirdly, he should have asked Brodie to intercept the fugitive long before it became possible to plunge the car into the river.
"All I can say is, I sized up the situation and acted accordingly," he commented ruefully.

"It did look like a good plan to give him rope enough"-- here he checked his utterance, and glanced at the disconsolate prisoner--"but he fairly got the better of me when I went aboard that barge.