CHAPTER V
THE GREAT SCHEMER
AT half-past eleven one morning a young man of about twenty-eight arrived in Stargorod. An urchin came running up to him.
'Give us a copper!' he asked cheekily. The young man pulled a warm apple out of his pocket and gave it to the boy, but the urchin would not leave him alone. The man stopped, looked down at the boy, and said sarcastically: 'Perhaps you'd like the key of my room where I keep my money?'
The ragamuffin saw it was hopeless and ran away.
The young man was a liar. He neither had money, nor a room to put money in, nor a key to lock up the room. He did not even possess an overcoat. He was wearing a tight-fitting suit made of green cloth, an old woollen scarf which was wound twice round his neck, patent leather boots with bright yellow suéde tops; and no socks. In his right hand he was holding an astrolabe.
'Tralalee, tralalo, tralalum,' he hummed as he went up the street towards the market. Here he had work to do. He pushed his way into a line of hawkers, held out the astrolabe, and began to shout: 'Who wants an astrolabe? An astrolabe! Going cheap. Discount allowed for delegates and women's educational societies'
There was no demand for this curious article. The housewives were too interested in the haberdashery booths. A secret agent of the police passed the young man twice, but, as the astrolabe did not in the least resemble the typewriter which had been stolen from the Butter Trust, he stopped trying to hypnotize the young man and walked on.
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