One glance showed me that
he was the bearer of a perfectly good coin-box, and in a second I had
seized the opportunity.
What he said I have not the slightest idea and it wouldn't have mattered
what the address had been; before he started I had assured him that by a
curious coincidence I was going to that very place, and that by a still
more curious coincidence I was the very man who wanted that coin-box.
Curious, wasn't it, how such coincidences happened in real life as well as
in books?
I took him to my home in a taxi. On the way I succeeded in diverting his
mind from any possible awkward questions by relating details of my sad
story until I could see the poor fellow was on the verge of tears. For
those interested in criminology I may say that all the best criminal
devices are not necessarily planned beforehand to the end; they are begun
any-old-how and the genius consists in carrying the thing through
afterwards, much the same as running a great war. I recked not what might
occur after I had nefariously induced the poor innocent to install the
machine; perhaps I had some vague idea that the Englishman's house is his
castle, though this seems ridiculous when considered calmly.
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