I looked at the clock; ten minutes after midnight. By half-past I had collected on my table a pair of soft rubber shoes, a small compendium jemmy and pick-lock—given to me by a patient who was very expert with it—an electric torch, a big bunch of all kinds of keys, two cultivation-tubes, a revolver, a small bundle of cotton-wool and some very thin rubber operating gloves. After carefully examining each article, to make sure that everything there was in perfect working order, I lit a big cigar, and sat down to read.
By the time I had smoked a second cigar It was nearly two o'clock.
Behold me, then, in soft hat, overcoat, rubber shoes on my feet, and the rest of my paraphernalia in my pockets, carefully looking round from the shelter of my front door, trying to locate the policeman on the beat. I waited for ten minutes; everything was silent and still. I waited until a heavy cloud turned the streets and houses into deep shadows before I rapidly crossed the road. I went round to the house of one Humphrey Friende, Esq., to pay a late night call—and I did not go to the front door—no—but round the house to the kitchen quarters.
There were two doors, and I tried my care-
