Newtown nick is awaiting an official visit by H.M. Inspector of Constabulary. The station is spick and span, gleaming with polish, when in walks a miner, straight from the coal face, dripping coal dust over everything. He wants to confess to his part in the theft of a forty feet long shed the previous night. Blackitt is furious and desperately tries to persuade the miner to come back later. The argument is at its height when H.M. Inspector arrives.