_Campbell:_ "Not at all. You just set the pick in here over the lock,
and pry. I sha'n't leave a scratch." They stoop down together in front
of the bureau, and Campbell shows him how. "But what are you going to
do? You've got to have your clothes if you're going to the musicale. Ah,
here we are! Thanks," as Bella comes with the ice-pick, which he pushes
in over the lock of the lowest drawer. "We'll begin with the lowest,
because that's where Amy keeps mine, and if Agnes has got onto it
through her, she'll be sure to do exactly the same. Now, then, I just
scratch the bolt down with my knife, and Open, Sesame! What do you say
to bruising your old bureau now?"
_Roberts_, as Campbell pulls out the drawer and sets it on a chair:
"Perfect! Only"--he lifts the things from the drawer, and places them on
another chair--"there don't seem to be anything here but underclothes."
_Campbell:_ "Well, then, we must get the next out. No time to lose.
Come! Keep shoving the pick in, and I'll scratch the bolt down with my
knife. See? It's nothing." They pull the drawer out and set it on the
floor, and Roberts ruefully contemplates it.
_Roberts:_ "Nothing but shirts, collars, cuffs and neckties."
_Campbell:_ "Ah, I don't know that. It's a deep drawer"--he begins
taking the linen out, and laying it on the floor--"and the dress-suit
may be at the bottom. No! Nothing here. You're right, Roberts. Well, now
for the top drawer and the last. If we'd taken that out first, we
needn't have taken out the second; we could have seen it in place. You
ought to have thought of that, Roberts."
_Roberts_, with injury: "You suggested taking out the lowest first,
yourself, Willis. You said Agnes would be sure to have put them there."
_Campbell:_ "Did I? Well, I knew I must have a reason for it. But come
along now, Roberts, and push the ice-pick in." After a season of
experiment with the pick and the penknife: "The bolt won't scratch down.
What are you going to do now, Roberts?"
_Roberts:_ "I don't know."
_Campbell:_ "But you've got to do something, you know. We can't just
give it up. Where are those dress-trousers and waistcoat?" He begins
tumbling the things on the bed, laying some on chairs, letting others
drop to the floor. "Ah, here they are! Now, I'll tell you what,
Roberts, you've got to wear these. Go into your dressing-room there and
put them on, and then we can tell how much they have to be slit up the
back."
_Roberts:_ "But where's the coat, even if I could get the other things
on?"
_Campbell:_ "We'll think about that later. We haven't got any time to
lose in talk. We can pin back the skirts of your frock-coat, as the
travelling Americans used to do when they went to the opera in London.
Hurry up!" He gives Roberts the garments, and pushes him into the door
of his dressing-room, and walks impatiently up and down amidst the chaos
of clothing till Roberts reappears. "Why, that isn't bad!"
_Roberts:_ "Bad? I can't breathe; I feel as if I were being cut in
two!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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