That night, had it not been for the moonless dark of it, you might have
seen the same laborer who had been so concerned with tape-measures and
distances near the Treasury Building, a long shallow basket stoutly
woven of willow on his arm, making secretly for the mouth of the drain
that once witnessed the investigations of Storri. The basket concealed a
short pickax of the sort that miners use, a little spade such as
children play with on the seashore, but very strong, and a pinch-bar, or
"jimmy," about two feet long. Besides these suspicious implements, there
were food, a flask of whisky, another of coffee, and a bicycle lamp, to
make up the basket's furniture.
The laborer entered the drain's mouth, and when beyond chance of
observation from without, he paused as aforetime had Storri to light his
lamp. As the match illuminated his face, you would have identified the
features of London Bill, celebrated safe-blower, box-worker, and
'peter-man, presently about to begin his first night's work on that
thirty-million-dollar job over which he and Storri had shaken hands.
Having lighted his lamp, London Bill journeyed on his way until the same
bend in the great drain that had hidden Storri shut him out from view.
London Bill splashingly proceeded to the second turn in the drain; from
that point he counted the manholes until he stood beneath the one from
which you saw him measuring with the tape. As nearly as he might, London
Bill, going northward in the drain, slowly paced off seventy feet from
the manhole; then he halted and drove two large spikes between the
bricks that formed the walls, using the pinch-bar to do the driving. On
these nails he hung his basket and fixed his lamp, the latter so as to
light the opposite wall. Being disencumbered of the basket, London Bill
took the tape and again made his measurements, this time more accurately
than might be done by pacing.
London Bill got to work, breast-high and where the lamplight fell, on
the wall of the drain nearest the Treasury, and with the point of the
pinch-bar began taking out the bricks. Our cracksman worked slowly and
surely, laying the bricks in the bottom of the drain so as to form a
floor on which to stand. In this way he soon found himself above the
water, which thereafter muttered about the bricks instead of his boots,
as was the former uncomfortable condition.
After three hours of toil, the last brick was removed; a circular hole
four feet in diameter showed in the wall of the drain. Beyond was the
earth--gray clay, as Storri had said. Seizing the little spade, London
Bill threw a handful into the water; it was instantly dissolved and
washed away.
"There's current enough," said London Bill, in a satisfied whisper, "to
clear away the dirt as fast as I dig it, which is a chunk of luck my
way."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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