"When the police are following a criminal," was the remark of an old offender to 2 well-known detective who repeated it to me writes contributer of the "Daily News, "their thoughts ought to be concentrated upon cabbages or the boat-race. As it is I can always feel when I am followed. A voice seems to tell me. 'Go and destroy all papers at once,' or 'Get into a taxi.' I once felt that instinct, but didn't have the sense to obey it. Almost at once two men came up tome. One touched me on the arm and said: 'We are detectives; you must come with us,'
"T learnt about shadowing from this man," the detective added; "and I have tracked some hundreds with success since then."
"Can you follow the same person for long?" I asked, "Yes; I once tracked an American for three years, and we travelled all over Europe together, yet he never had any idea. I was after him. "Good morning,' I could often say with perfect safety. I wore no disguise; the secret is buried more deeply than in apbearances, It is psychological, "Many detectives never realize that unconsciously they are affecting the action of the crimis telepathy. A man who has been known' and wanted' in his time and has run the gauntlet of Seotland Yard, confided to me that he relied entirely upon an instinctive sense of danger to cross the road or walk out of a restaurant, "The detective must force himself to think of something else. If you concentrate upon any person whose action you wish to influence it is generally possible to make him conscious of your wishes. it is far less well realized is that if you think hard you cannot conceal your thoughts.
"How far these ara read and identified with you by the interested Party depends on his or her intuitive faculty, The man whom you follow in the street may, if he becomes conscious of your presence, look round, yet fail to identify you aa the cause of his troubles; but the uncomfortable feeling will be quite enough to spoil him for your purpose.
"For this reason," added the detective, "the first day on which you shadow a man he should not be followed for more than an hour. Hustling is fatal. Cases are often los which, with a little extra care, would hava been won."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.