Page:Diamonds To Sit On.pdf/57

 A NERVOUS THIEF

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springs of the most varied shapes and patterns. There were simple springs and complicated springs, and they were all very effective and strong. As soon as a door was opened, it sprang to again with the same force as the hd of a mousetrap. The whole house shook when one of these springs came into action. The old women would squeak plaintively as the doors slammed to on them, but they did not always manage to escape. The doors would catch them in the back and shoot them forward. As the two men went through the various rooms of the house the doors saluted them with loud bangs, but there were no chairs to be seen anywhere. In con­ tinuing his search the inspector presently found hirnself in the kitchen, where porridge was being cooked in a large cauldron. Bender had smelt this when he had first come into the house. He sniffed the air and then asked : ‘ Cooked on train oil ? ’, ‘ No ! I swear it’s cooked with fresh farm butter, said Alkin, going as red as a beetroot. ‘ We always get it from the farm.’ He was terribly ashamed. ‘ Still, there’s no danger of fire taking place here.’ The chair was not in the kitchen. There was only a stool on which the male cook, dressed in an overall and cap of the same mouse-coloured material, was sitting. ‘ Why are they all dressed in the same grey colour ? ’ Bender asked the superintendent, ‘ and of such a quality that it’s not fit for anything else except cleaning windows ? ’ Alkin was more confused than ever. ‘ We don’t get sufficient credit.’ He hated himself for saying this. Bender looked at him suspiciously and then said. ' Of course, this has nothing to do with safeguards against fire, in which I am interested at the moment. Alkin grew alarmed. ‘We have taken every precaution against fire. We’ve even got a fire-extinguisher. It’s a “ Lightning ” extinguisher.’ But Bender was not interested in the extinguisher.