Now, the more difficult and
complicated his task the less likely is the sleuth (honest or
otherwise) to succeed. The chances are a good deal more than
even that he will never solve the mystery for which he is
engaged. Thus at the end of three months you will have only
his reports and his bill--which are poor comfort, to say the
least. And yet he may have really worked eighteen hours a day
in your service. But a dishonest detective has only to
disappear (and take his ease for the same period) and send you
his reports and his bill--and you will have only his word for
how much work he has done and how much money he has spent.
You are absolutely in his power--unless you hire another
detective to watch HIM. Consequently there is no class in the
world where the temptation to dishonesty is greater than among
detectives. This, too, is, I fancy, the reason that the
evidence of the police detective is received with so much
suspicion by jurymen--they know that the only way for him to
retain his position is by making a record and getting
convictions, and hence they are always looking for jobs and
frame-ups.
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