Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/363

Rh I've done my bit of almost everything, and picked up more than a few tricks like telegraphing, etc., to help on in my trade. But just this spring I made a slight slip, which made it advisable for me to shave my mustache, change my name, and strike for something new. So, when I looked about a bit and saw how you Americans were travelling about the cathedral towns and, at the same time, my uncle passed on to me the hereditary assurance that I would find sure profit from touring these towns, I thought I would try it.

I must say that, from the first, the profits of the tour exceeded my most sanguine expectations—especially since they could be so easily taken. Of course, I had to keep myself from being suspected. And, obviously, both the safest and surest way to turn away suspicion from one is to turn it upon some one else. So, you see, I have merely been carrying out with you, Mr. Preston, the first law of larceny, viz., see that some one else is suspected; the rest is infantile.

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