ion. He felt sure that the Head of the Office had a weakness
for precautions. The door-keeper, now enthusiastic, said he should just
think he had! The Little Man felt he was getting warm. The door-keeper
put the deal through and prevailed upon his master to instal a really
safe safe in the office, instead of the old one. You had only to look at
it to see it was impregnable by fire, water or the King's Enemies. But
one set of keys stayed with the Little Man.

The drinking (by both) and the paying (by the door-keeper) were resumed.
When the debt was again large enough the Little Man imposed new terms.
This time he wanted to see the Head of the Office himself, to put
further deals through. The door-keeper thought deeply, but could see no
harm in this. The Little Man was thus introduced into the presence, and
startled it by pointing to the safe and offering to do burglar on it any
night of the week. The Head was manifestly concerned.

"We have here," said the Little Man, producing two formidable slabs of
steel hinged together and leaving room between them when locked for a
wad of papers only--"we have here a special strong box exactly suited
for the storage of your bank-notes. Put them in this box, and the box in
the safe, and then you really are ahead of your enemies."

The Head bought. He gave the Little Man less money than he had spent on
the strong box, and the Little Man gave him less keys than he was
entitled to. The drinking and the debt were resumed, and, when it came
to a question of settlement for the third time, the Little Man pointed
out to the door-keeper that, if he hadn't the money to repay, then he
must steal it. He now divulged that he was not really a broker, but a
breaker of safes and strong boxes. He handed the door-keeper a key of
his employer's safe. In the safe would be found the strong box. In the
strong box would be found some notes of high value, unless he was very
much mistaken.

So the door-keeper went and opened the safe and returned. And the Little
Man opened the strong box, and he _was_ very much mistaken. There was
never a note there; just half-a-dozen pages torn out of a book printed
in Arabic.

He was so angry that he gave the strong box one on the lid for itself,
with the result that he couldn't lock it again. However, he said he had
a friend who could lock or unlock anything, and he left the door-keeper
drinking, for the first time at the Little Man's expense, while he took
off the b