As a rule novelists who treat of these people have a bad habit of making them out to be hopelessly idiotic or unlikelily vicious.

Even though in a way you let him freeze to death in the water, because the way I see it... I agree. Y'know, I think he actually could have fitted on that bit of door. There was plenty of room on the raft. I know. I know, I know.

But not for nothing had Hopkins trailed Grant from Wigmore Street to the Orient offices, and from the Orient offices to the Temple, and from the Temple to the Yard. Not for nothing had he cooled his heels round the corner while his paid henchman kept watch on the Yard and gave him the sign when Grant left. Not for nothing had he followed him all the way to Westover.

It appears clear from Stan's Joe Rock films, where he is very much in control of his material, that he had no intention of becoming part of a double act.