“When the policeman was coming, the man in the street made a signal to the man at the lawyer’s window. This one signalled the fellow at the hole, and pulled the string gently. The man at the safe then rolled under the counter; he staid there till the policeman had looked in and gone along, when the signals were repeated, and he rolled out and went to work again. “We lost five minutes out of every fifteen in this way, and at one time we thought we should have to give up. We got into the safe, though a little after midnight; and then it didn’t take long to empty it of all we could carry. We were out of the store by one o’clock Monday morning, and took an early train to London.” The burglar then went on to give a description of the process of opening a safe. He said that it was a rule with skilful burglars that any safe could be opened, provided there was a place anywhere for the insertion of a wedge. “If we can get a wedge in anywhere,” said he, “the safe is bound to open, even though the first wedge is no thicker than the blade of a knife. [Sidenote: “BURGLAR PROOF SAFES.”] “All we want besides proper tools is plenty of time, and there never was a safe manufactured that cannot be opened if you give us time.” He then described the advantages and disadvantages of the safes made by different manufacturers. “A’s safe can be opened by a skilful man in twenty hours; B’s in fifteen hours; C’s in eleven hours; D’s in nine hours; and as for E’s,” mentioning one that had recently come into notice, “we consider it no more than an ordinary trunk, as we can open it in half an hour. “There is no safe made that cannot be opened inside of thirty hours, and if we can be sure of not being disturbed for that time, we are certain of our game. Any safe will answer its purpose, provided the intervals of visiting the place where it is kept are never so great as the time required to open it.” As the man finished his story, and was taken from the court to go to prison, the judge asked him why he did not abandon burglary and live honestly. “Your story,” said the judge, “shows that you possess sufficient intelligence and ability to make you a master mechanic in a very short time, and if you would lead a respectable life you could be sure of a good living.” The burglar turned to the judge, and replied with great earnestness, “I am as proud of my profession as you are of yours, and have no desire to leave it. I stand high in it, and the praise and admiration of my associates are just as dear to me as the praise and admiration of a shopful of mechanics would be to their master. Besides, we run risks that mechanics do not; we must have the skill to baffle the police, and save ourselves from arrest, while the mechanic needs nothing of the kind. The greater our danger, the greater is the respect shown to us; and one reason why we love our profession is, because there is so much danger in it. And any skilful and experienced burglar will tell you so.”