catch-thief

Updated: June 9, 2025

He proved a hangdog, sidelong catch-thief, but gifted with a marvellous perseverance in ferreting out culprits; following in their track like an inevitable Cuba blood-hound, with his noiseless nose. When disconcerted, however, you sometimes heard his bay.

Herman Melville - White Jacket: or, the World on a Man-of-War