It bore reference to the first detention on mere postal technique, but a man's nose is placed between his eyes that he may smell out what he cannot see into, and knowing "the ways of such people" (Boccacio's phrase in speaking of the pranksome devils depicted by Dante in the Inferno, and quite apropos of Messrs. Stevens, Tobey, Comstock, and the rest), and suspecting the true mischief, I at once wrote to Mr. Chainey, personally a stranger to me, asking the particulars.
Source: wiktionary