Ern’s case was, mercifully, one of the first to be tried. It was over with incredible swiftness; no defence was offered, no legal wrangling was necessary, nothing was to be done but state the facts, hear Ern’s plea of Guilty, and sentence him. After the speed of the proceedings, its next most striking feature was the casual atmosphere. It was evidently seen as a business transaction. Ern had placed such-and-such an amount of illegal conduct on one balance of the scales; the law would place a corresponding weight of punishment on the other, and equilibrium would be restored. Charles had never seen lawyers in action before, but in their rapid, detached handling of the business, their evident lack of personal concern with what to others were matters of supreme importance, they reminded him of clergymen scampering with professional rapidity through a service. No one seemed to be shocked, or to care much, about Ern’s crime. It seemed that he had been employed by a firm called the Export Express Bureau, which supplied drivers to motor manufacturers who wanted their newly-finished vehicles driven from the factory to the docks. It was news to Charles, as (evidently) it was to the Judge, that such firms existed. Ern’s job had been simply to report at one or other of the large Midland motor firms, pick up the car or lorry that awaited him, and drive it to some major sea-port, usually Liverpool or Southampton. In the course of the Judge’s questions (it was, patently, the only part of the proceedings that engaged his interest) it emerged not only that such a job existed, but that it was particularly subject to bribery. The demand for cars was such that theft had become profitable and highly systematized. Gangs would approach an Export Express driver, and make it sub­stantially worth his while to leave his car unattended in a moment of carelessness; it was quite enough to pull up at a wayside café, and on emerging, go round to the lavatory behind the building and stay there for two or three minutes. When the driver returned, the brand-new car had already been driven down the road and into a waiting van, where, even as it drove along, it was resprayed in a different colour and fake licence plates screwed on. A day or two later the driver would receive his bribe. It seemed that he always did receive it; the gangs wanted to stay on good terms with the drivers, and found it worth while to do business genuinely.