★ 5 ★::A Gentleman of Leisure
A Thief in the Night
How long the light had been about the room like a very-much-enlarged Jimmy did not know. It to him like hours, for it had itself into an of his; and for a moment, as the of sleep passed away from his brain, he that he was still. Then sleep left him, and he that the light, which was now moving slowly across the bookcase, was a light.
That the man it not have been there long was plain, or he would have the chair and its occupant. He to be taking the room step by step. As Jimmy sat up noiselessly, and the arms of the chair in for a spring, the light passed from the to the table. Another or so to the left, and it would have on Jimmy.
On it came. From the position of the Jimmy see that the was on his of the table. Though, until that day, he had not been in the room for two months, its was on his mind’s eye. He almost to a where his visitor was standing. Consequently when, from the chair he a football into the darkness, it was no dive. It had a aim, and it was not by any as to the road to the burglar’s was clear or not.
His into a leg. His arms closed on it and pulled. There was a of and a crash. The away across the room and itself on the of the steam-heater. Its owner in a on top of Jimmy.
Jimmy, at the fall, put himself with a of his body. He had every advantage. The was a small man, and had been taken very much by surprise, and any there might have been in him in normal had been out of him by the fall. He still, not attempting to struggle.
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Jimmy rose and, his by to the door, up the till he the electric-light button.
The yellow which the room a short, of Bowery extraction. A of red was the thing about him that the eye. A would have it as Titian. Its proprietor’s friends and called it “carrots”. Looking up at Jimmy from under this of was a not face. It was not certainly, but there were of a good-humour. The nose had been at one period of its career, and one of the ears was of the type; but these are little which may to any high-spirited gentleman. In the visitor had been by taste than by the of fashion. His was of rusty-black, his of grey, out with of colours. Beneath the was a red-and-white sweater. A of soft on the by the table.
The cut of the was poor, and the of it by a in one of the pockets. Diagnosing this correctly, Jimmy his hand and out a revolver.
“Well?” he said, rising.
Like most people, he had often what he should do if he were to meet a burglar; and he had always come to the that would be his emotion. His had proved perfectly correct. Now that he had his visitor’s gun he had no wish to do anything but him in conversation. A burglar’s life was something so his experience. He wanted to learn the burglar’s point of view. Incidentally, he with amusement, as he his wager, he might up a useful hints.
The man on the sat up and the of his ruefully.
“Gee!” he muttered. “I t’ought some guy had t’rown de at me.”
“It was only little me,” said Jimmy. “Sorry if I you at all. You want a for that of thing.”
The man’s hand to his pocket. Then his of the revolver, which Jimmy had on the table. With a he it.
“Now den, boss!” he said, his teeth.
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Jimmy his hand him and it. Six in the palm.
“Why worry?” he said. “Sit and let us talk of life.”
“It’s a cop, boss,” said the man resignedly.
“Away with melancholy,” said Jimmy. “I’m not going to call the police. You can go you like.”
The man stared.
“I it,” said Jimmy. “What’s the trouble? I’ve no grievance. I wish, though, if you haven’t any engagement, you would stop and talk first.”
A spread itself across the other’s face. There was something about him when he grinned.
“Gee! If ain’t goin’ to call de cops, I’ll talk till de again.”
“Talking, however,” said Jimmy, “is work. Are you a teetotaller?”
“What’s dat? Me? On your way, boss!”
“Then you’ll a in that decanter. Help yourself. I think you’ll like it.”
A gurgling, by a sigh, that the had been and proved correct.
“Cigar?” asked Jimmy.
“Me dat,” his visitor.
“Take a handful.”
“I eats alive,” said the jovially, in the spoils.
Jimmy his legs.
“By the way,” he said, “let there be no us. What’s your name? Mine is Pitt—James Willoughby Pitt.”
“Mullins is my monaker, boss. Spike, calls me.”
“And you make a at this of thing?”
“Not so bad.”
“How did you in here?”
Spike Mullins grinned.
“Gee! Ain’t de window open?”
“If it hadn’t been?”
“I’d a’ it.”
Jimmy him fixedly.
“Can you use an blow-pipe?” he demanded.
Spike was on the point of drinking. He his and gaped.
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“What’s dat?” he said.
“An blow-pipe.”
“Search me,” said Spike blankly. “Dat past me.”
Jimmy’s manner more severe.
“Can you make soup?”
“Soup, boss?”
“He doesn’t know what is,” said Jimmy despairingly. “My good man, I’m you have missed your vocation. You have no to be trying to burgle. You don’t know the thing about the game.”
Spike was him with over his glass. Till now the red-haired one had been very well satisfied with his methods, but was to his nerve. He had of masters of his who use of such as Jimmy had mentioned; who had an acquaintanceship, on familiarity, with the of science; men to the latest were as familiar as his own was to himself. Could this be one of that select band? Jimmy to take on a new in his eyes.
“Spike,” said Jimmy.
“Huh!”
“Have you a knowledge of chemistry, physics——”
“On your way, boss!”
“Toxicology——”
“Search me!”
“Electricity and microscopy?”
“Nine, ten. Dat’s de finish. I’m and out.”
Jimmy his sadly.
“Give up burglary,” he said. “It’s not in your line. Better try poultry-farming.”
Spike his glass, abashed.
“Now I,” said Jimmy airily, “am of into a house to-night.”
“Gee!” Spike, his at last. “I t’ought was in de game, boss. Sure, you’re de guy dat’s onto all de curves. I t’ought so all along.”
“I should like to hear,” said Jimmy amusedly, as one who out an child, “how you would set about one of those up-town villas. My own work has been on a larger and on the other of the Atlantic.”
“De side?”
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“I have done as much in London as else,” said Jimmy. “A great town, London. Full of opportunities for the worker. Did you of the of the new Asiatic Bank in Lombard Street?”
“No, boss,” Spike. “Was you?”
“The police would like an answer to the same question,” he said self-consciously. “Perhaps you nothing of the of the Duchess of Havent’s diamonds?”
“Was dat——?”
“The thief,” said Jimmy, a of from his coat-sleeve, “was to have used an blow-pipe.”
The of Spike’s was the only that the silence. Through the his be slowly widening.
“But about this villa,” said Jimmy. “I am always in the of the profession. Now, tell me, you were going to into a villa, what time of night would you do it?”
“I always t’inks it’s best either late like or when de is in at supper,” said Spike respectfully.
Jimmy a faint, smile, and nodded.
“Well, and what would you do?”
“I’d around some to see isn’t a window open somewheres,” said Spike diffidently.
“And if there wasn’t?”
“I’d climb up de and into one of de bedrooms,” said Spike, almost blushing. He like a boy reading his at original to an critic. What would this master cracksman, this of the blow-pipe, this expert in toxicology, microscopy, and physics, think of his outpourings?
“How would you into the bedroom?”
Spike his head.
“Bust de catch me jemmy,” he shamefacedly.
“Burst the catch with your jemmy?”
“It’s de only way I learned,” Spike.
The expert was silent. He to be thinking. The other his humbly.
“How would do it, boss?” he timidly, at last.
“Eh?”
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“How would do it?”
“Why, I’m not sure,” said the master graciously, “whether your way might not do in a case like that. It’s crude, of course, but with a it would do.”
“Gee, boss! Is right?” the disciple.
“It would do,” said the master, thoughtfully. “It would do well—quite well.”
Spike a of and astonishment. That his methods should meet with from such a mind!
“Gee!” he whispered. As who should say, “I am Napoleon.”
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