entered Reichman's pawnshop at eleven-thirty
in the morning. Each one had a watch or an overcoat to pawn. They
crowded about Reichman, all talking at once. They were strangers to him.
At exactly the same time the attention of the six policemen on the six
nearest beats was attracted by the drunken and disorderly behavior of
six more stalwart young fellows--one to each policeman. In the end six
arrests were made, the six young drunkards were marched off to the
station house, and the beats of the six policemen were for the time
being deserted.

Sharp at eleven-thirty-seven, five of the six young men in Reichman's
shop flung an overcoat over his head and rushed him into a dark corner,
choking him so that he could not scream. A person in the street,
however, saw the struggle, and rushed off to find the nearest policeman,
who of course could not be found. Meanwhile the sixth young man ran
lightly upstairs, looked under the mattress of the palatial Reichman
bed, where he had been told to look, and secured the stolen diamonds.
The farce came to a proper conclusion. Reichman could not complain to
the police that he had been robbed of stolen goods. And he went about
for many days with a sour face.

Blizzard came every day to condole with him, and finally to return the
diamonds. Then he told Reichman, a man he could trust, how the robbery
had been worked, and the two put their heads together.

If six policemen could be so easily put out of commission at a given
moment, why not many? If a pawnshop could be so easily looted, why not
Tiffany's, or one of the great wholesale jewellers in Maiden Lane? Why
not the Sub-Treasury?

In Blizzard's mind the idea became an obsession; and he worked out
schemes, in all their details; only to think of something bigger and
more engaging. One or two details were present in all his plans: a
hiding-place for the treasure when he should get it, and a large number
of lieutenants whom he could trust. He could, he believed, at the least
throw the whole city into a state of chaos for a few hours--for half a
day--for a whole day. And during that period of lawless confusion
anything might happen to anybody--to Barbara for instance. But his plans
were not ripe, nor his trusted lieutenants as yet sufficient in number.
He must therefore either put off his vengeance indefinitely, or run the
risk of having his own career as a criminal come to a very sudden end.
For once in his life he vacillated. But it was