At first the noise mingled with his dreams, and helped to form them. He was down a mine, and grimy workers with strong picks were knocking diamonds from the walls, diamonds so large that he became despondent at the comparative smallness of his own. Then he awoke suddenly and sat up with a start, rubbing his eyes. The din was infernal to a man who liked to do a quiet business in an unobtrusive way. It was a knocking which he usually associated with the police, and it came from his side door. With a sense of evil strong upon him, the Jew sprang from his bed, and, slipping the catch, noiselessly opened the window and thrust his head out. In the light of a lamp which projected from the brick wall at the other end of the alley he saw a figure below. “Hulloa!” said the Jew harshly. His voice was drowned in the noise. “What do you want?” he yelled. “Hulloa, there! What do you want, I say?” The knocking ceased, and the figure, stepping back a little, looked up at the window. “Come down and open the door,” said a voice which the pawnbroker recognized as the sailor’s. “Go away,” he said, in a low, stern voice. “Do you want to rouse the neighborhood?” “Come down and let me in,” said the other. “It’s for your own good. You’re a dead man if you don’t.” Impressed by his manner the Jew, after bidding him shortly not to make any more noise, lit his candle, and, dressing hurriedly, took the light in his hand and went grumbling downstairs into the shop. “Now, what do you want?” he said through the door. “Let me in and I’ll tell you,” said the other, “or I’ll bawl it through the keyhole, if you like.” The Jew, placing the candle on the counter, drew back the heavy bolts and cautiously opened the door. The seaman stepped in, and, as the other closed the door, vaulted on to the counter and sat there with his legs dangling. “That’s right,” he said, nodding approvingly in the direction of the Jew’s right hand. “I hope you know how to use it.” “What do you want?” demanded the other irritably, putting his hand behind him. “What time o’ night do you call this for turning respectable men out of their beds?” “I didn’t come for the pleasure o’ seeing your pretty face again, you can bet,” said the seaman carelessly. “It’s good nature what’s brought me here. What have you done with that diamond?” “That’s my business,” said the other. “What do you want?” “I told you I sailed in five days,” said the seaman. “Well, I got another ship this evening instead, and I sail at 6 a.m. Things are getting just a bit too thick for me, an’ I thought out o’ pure good nature I’d step round and put you on your guard.” “Why didn’t you do so at first?” said the Jew, eyeing him suspiciously. “Well, I didn’t want to spoil a bargain,” said the seaman carelessly. “Maybe, you wouldn’t have bought the stone if I had told you. Mind that thing don’t go off; I don’t want to rob you. Point it the other way.”