Sherlock

Rather than be trapped in a statement that there is no way I could verify". He seemed satisfied with that.
Then he said, "Well I do not believe that you are the guilty party. I have been a detective many years and I see by the pipes on the floor that you are a pipe smoker. I am pipe smoker myself."
Of course I could not resist asking him if he smoked a Calabash pipe like Sherlock Holmes in a joking manner.
"Why yes", he said, "and I sell them as well. But to continue", he continued, "in all the twenty years I have been at Scotland Yard, I have never met a criminal, never put a criminal in jail, or have known of a criminal to be in jail that smoked a pipe."

This I thought to be a very interesting bit of psychology. I was very impressed and told him so. This encounter was so polite, mannerly, professional and unlike my assumptions of what such an encounter would be like in my own country of America, where they would perhaps break down the door, hall me off in handcuffs to some little room at the police station and grill me for hours under hot lights. The Inspector said they would check the ferry manifest as to the veracity of my statement. They asked me how long I had planned to stay in London and where I planned to go when I departed. Then they left. I never heard from them again so I could only assume that they checked the ferry manifest and the arrival time. Perhaps the ferry had arrived in Dover after the established time of death. With this incident it occurred to me, that it can be dangerous to travel around by oneself without the benefit of an alibi.

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