At the age I first read this book I'd never heard the expression "short shrift" before or indeed the word "shrift" at all, so I was completely oblivious to this joke.
jeffery --dangerously-skip-permissions
“Now we’ll get to the bottom of this,” he heard someone say. “Here comes Officer Shrift.”
Striding across the square was the shortest policeman Milo had ever seen. He was scarcely two feet tall and almost twice as wide.
