“‘I have,’ said I.  ‘I keep the whole of the house.’

“‘My eye!’ exclaimed my friend, whose name I learned to be Towler, ’you are a bloomin’ toff.  Like me to show you that door?’

“I said that I should like it very much, and accordingly, when the trimming operations were concluded and I had secured a wisp of Mr. Towler’s hair for subsequent examination, we ascended to the second floor front and he demonstrated the hidden door.

“’It’s in this ’ere cupboard, under that row of pegs.  That peg underneath at the side is the ’andle.  You catches ’old of it, so, and you gives a pull to the right.’  He suited the action to the words, and, with a loud groan, the middle third of the back of the cupboard slid bodily to the right, leaving an opening about three feet square, beyond which was a solid-looking panel with a small knob at the left-hand side.

“‘That,’ whispered Towler, ’is the back of a cupboard in the next ’ouse.  If you was to pull that ’andle to the right, it would slide along same as this one.  Only I expect there’s somebody in the room there.’

“I rewarded Mr. Towler with half a sovereign, which he evidently thought liberal, and he departed gleefully.  Shortly afterwards I learned that he had ‘got a stretch’ in connection with a ‘job’ at Camberwell; and he vanished from my ken.  But I did not forget the sliding doors.  No special use for them suggested itself, but their potentialities were so obvious that I resolved to keep a sharp eye on the second floor front next door.

“I had not long to wait.  Presently the whole floor was advertised by a card on the street door as being to let and I seized the opportunity of a quiet Sunday to reconnoiter and put the arrangements in going order.  I slid back the panel on my own side and then, dragging at the handle, pushed back the second panel.  Both moved noisily and would require careful treatment.  I passed through the square opening into the vacant room and looked round, but there was little to see, though a good deal to smell, for the windows were hermetically sealed and a closed stove fitted into the fireplace precluded any possibility of ventilation.  The aroma of the late tenants still lingered in the air.

“I returned through the opening and began my labors.  First, with a hard brush I cleaned out both sets of grooves, top and bottom.  Then, into each groove I painted a thick coating of tallow and black lead, mixed into a paste and heated.  By moving the panels backwards and forwards a great number of times I distributed the lubricant and brought the black lead to such a polish that the doors slid with the greatest ease and without a sound.  I was so pleased with the result that I was tempted to engage the room next door, but as this might have aroused suspicion—­seeing that I had a whole house already—­I refrained; and shortly afterwards the floor was taken by a family of Polish Jews, who apparently supplemented their income by letting part of it furnished.