Sir Jee, seated in the arm-chair which dominates the other chairs round the elm table in the magistrates" room, emitted a preliminary cough.
"Smith," he said sternly, leaning his elbows on the table, "you were very fortunate this morning, you know."
And he gazed at Smith.
Smith stood near the door, cap in hand. He did not resemble a burglar, who surely ought to be big, muscular, and masterful. He resembled an undersized clerk who has been out of work for a long time, but who has nevertheless found the means to eat and drink rather plenteously. He was clothed in a very shabby navy-blue suit, frayed at the wrists and ankles, and greasy in front. His linen collar was brown with dirt, his fingers were dirty, his hair was unkempt and long, and a young and l.u.s.ty black beard was sprouting on his chin. His boots were not at all pleasant.
"Yes, governor," Smith replied, lightly, with a Manchester accent. "And what"s YOUR game?"
Sir Jee was taken aback. He, the chairman of the borough Bench, and the leading philanthropist in the country, to be so spoken to! But what could he do? He himself had legally established Smith"s innocence.
Smith was as free as air, and had a perfect right to adopt any tone he chose to any man he chose. And Sir Jee desired a service from William Smith.
"I was hoping I might be of use to you," said Sir Jehoshaphat diplomatically.
"Well," said Smith, "that"s all right, that is. But none of your philanthropic dodges, you know. I don"t want to lead a new life, and I don"t want to turn over a new leaf, and I don"t want a helpin" hand, nor none o" those things. And, what"s more, I don"t want a situation.
I"ve got all the situation as I need. But I never refuse money, nor beer neither. Never did, and I"m forty years old next month."
"I suppose burgling doesn"t pay very well, does it?" Sir Jee boldly ventured.
William Smith laughed coa.r.s.ely.
"It pays right enough," said he. "But I don"t put my money on my back, governor, I put it into a bit of public-house property when I get the chance."
"It may pay," said Sir Jee. "But it is wrong. It is very anti-social."
"Is it, indeed?" Smith returned dryly. "Anti-social, is it? Well, I"ve heard it called plenty o" things in my time, but never that. Now, I should have called it quite sociablelike, sort of making free with strangers, and so on. However," he added, "I come across a cove once as told me crime was nothing but a disease and ought to be treated as such. I asked him for a dozen o" port, but he never sent it."
"Ever been caught before?" Sir Jee inquired.
"Not much!" Smith exclaimed. "And this"ll be a lesson to me, I can tell you. Now, what are you getting at, governor? Because my time"s money, my time is."
Sir Jee coughed once more.
"Sit down," said Sir Jee.
And William Smith sat down opposite to him at the table, and put his shiny elbows on the table precisely in the manner of Sir Jee"s elbows.
"Well?" he cheerfully encouraged Sir Jee.
"How would you like to commit a burglary that was not a crime?" said Sir Jee, his shifty eyes wandering around the room. "A perfectly lawful burglary?"
"What ARE you getting at?" William Smith was genuinely astonished.
"At my residence, Sneyd Castle," Sir Jee proceeded, "there"s a large portrait of myself in the dining-room that I want to have stolen. You understand?"
"Stolen?"
"Yes. I want to get rid of it. And I want--er--people to think that it has been stolen."
"Well, why don"t you stop up one night and steal it yourself, and then burn it?" William Smith suggested.
"That would be deceitful," said Sir Jee, gravely. "I could not tell my friends that the portrait had been stolen if it had not been stolen.
The burglary must be entirely genuine."
"What"s the figure?" said Smith curtly.
"Figure?"
"What are you going to give me for the job?"
"GIVE you for doing the job?" Sir Jee repeated, his secret and ineradicable meanness aroused. "GIVE you? Why, I"m giving you the opportunity to honestly steal a picture that"s worth over a thousand pounds--I dare say it would be worth two thousand pounds in America--and you want to be paid into the bargain! Do you know, my man, that people come all the way from Manchester, and even London, to see that portrait?" He told Smith about the painting.
"Then why are you in such a stew to be rid of it?" queried the burglar.
"That"s my affair," said Sir Jee. "I don"t like it. Lady Dain doesn"t like it. But it"s a presentation portrait, and so I can"t--you see, Mr Smith?"
"And how am I going to dispose of it when I"ve got it?" Smith demanded.
"You can"t melt a portrait down as if it was silver. By what you say, governor, it"s known all over the blessed world. Seems to me I might just as well try to sell the Nelson Column."
"Oh, nonsense!" said Sir Jee. "Nonsense. You"ll sell it in America quite easily. It"ll be a fortune to you. Keep it for a year first, and then send it to New York."
William Smith shook his head and drummed his fingers on the table; and then quite suddenly he brightened and said--
"All right, governor. I"ll take it on, just to oblige you."
"When can you do it?" asked Sir Jee, hardly concealing his joy.
"Tonight?"
"No," said Smith, mysteriously. "I"m engaged tonight."
"Well, tomorrow night?"
"Nor tomorrow. I"m engaged tomorrow too."
"You seem to be very much engaged, my man," Sir Jee observed.
"What do you expect?" Smith retorted. "Business is business. I could do it the night after tomorrow."
"But that"s Christmas Eve," Sir Jee protested.
"What if it is Christmas Eve?" said Smith coldly. "Would you prefer Christmas Day? I"m engaged on Boxing Day AND the day after."
"Not in the Five Towns, I trust?" Sir Jee remarked.
"No," said Smith shortly. "The Five Towns is about sucked dry."
The affair was arranged for Christmas Eve.
"Now," Sir Jee suggested, "shall I draw you a plan of the castle, so that you can--"