“Piragoff moved impatiently, then glanced at the parlor door.

“‘Anyone in that room?’ he asked.

“‘No,’ I answered, ‘I live here all alone.’

“‘No servant!  No one to look after you?’ he asked the question with ill-concealed eagerness.

“‘No.  I look after myself.  It’s cheaper; and I want so little.’

“The last statement I made in accordance with a curious fact that I have observed, which is that the really infallible method of impressing a stranger with your wealth is to dilate on your poverty.  The statement had its usual effect.  Piragoff fidgeted slightly, glanced at the shop door and said

“‘Finish my hair quickly and let us go in there and talk about this.’

“I chuckled inwardly at his eagerness.  Even his personal appearance had become a secondary consideration.  I bustled through the rest of the operation, whisked off the cloth and opened the parlor door.  He rose, glanced at his reflection in the glass, looked quickly at the shop door and followed me into the little room, shutting and bolting the door after him.

“I watched him closely.  I am no believer in the rubbish called telepathy, but, by observing a person’s face and actions, it is not difficult to trace the direction of his thoughts.  Piragoff gazed round the room with the frank curiosity of the barbarian, and the look of pleased surprise that he bestowed on the safe and the way in which his glance traveled from that object to my person were easy enough to interpret.  Here was an iron safe, presumably containing valuables, and here was an elderly man with the key of that safe in his pocket.  The corollary was obvious.

“‘Is that another room?’ he asked, pointing to the cellar door.

“I threw it open and let him look into the dark cavity.  ‘That,’ I said, ’is the cellar.  It has a door opening into the back yard, which has a gate that opens into Bell’s Alley.  It might be useful.  Don’t you think so?’

“He did think so; very emphatically, to judge by his expression.  Very useful indeed when you have knocked down an old man and rifled his safe, to have a quiet exit at the back.

“‘Now tell me about this stuff,’ said he.  ‘Have you got it here?’

“‘The fact is,’ I said confidentially, ‘I haven’t got it at all—­yet’ (his face fell perceptibly at this), ‘but,’ I added, ’I can get it when I like; when I have arranged about disposing of it.’

“‘But you’ve got a safe to keep it in,’ he protested.

“’Yes, but I don’t want to have it here.  Besides, that safe won’t hold it all, if I take over the whole lot.’

“Piragoff’s eyes fairly bulged with greed and excitement.

“‘What sort of stuff is it?  Silver?’

“‘There is some silver,’ I said, superciliously; ’a good deal, in fact.  But that’s hardly worth while.  You see this stuff is a collection.  It belongs, at present, to one of those fools who collect jewelry and church plate; monstrances, jeweled chalices and things of that kind.’