Page:The Stolen Bacillus.djvu/151

Rh I went and spent it all on coals, and had the furnace bright red again, and thenWell, hunger makes a fool of a man.

"At last, three weeks ago, I let the fire out. I took my cylinder and unscrewed it while it was still so hot that it punished my hands, and I scraped out the crumbling lava-like mass with a chisel, and hammered it into a powder upon an iron plate. And I found three big diamonds and five small ones.  As I sat on the floor hammering, my door opened, and my neighbour, the begging-letter writer came in.  He was drunk—as he usually is. ‘ ’Nerchist,’ said he.  'You're drunk,' said I. ‘ ’Structive scoundrel,' said he.  'Go to your father,' said I, meaning the Father of Lies.  'Never you mind,' said he, and gave me a cunning wink, and hiccuped, and leaning up against the door, with his other eye against the door-post, began to babble of how he had been prying in my room, and how he had gone to the police that morning, and how they had taken down