small customer; and that would never do
even at this time of year. Besides, the police would make a rigid
search; not that that would have mattered if I could have made proper
arrangements for the concealment and removal of the specimens. But
unfortunately I could not. The specimens would have to go; to be borne
out ingloriously in the face of the besieging force, limp and passive,
like a couple of those very helpless guys that are wont to be produced
by what Mrs. Kosminsky would call 'der chiltrens.' There would be a
certain grim appropriateness in the incident. For this was the fifth of
November.

"The generation of new ideas is chiefly a matter of association. The
ideas 'guys,' 'Mrs. Kosminsky' and 'the fifth of November' unconsciously
formed themselves into a group from which in an instant there was
evolved a new and startling train of thought. At first it seemed wild
enough; but when the two bottom drawers joined in the synthetic process,
a complete and consistent scheme began to appear. A flush of pleasurable
excitement swept over me, and as I raced upstairs fresh details added
themselves and fresh difficulties were propounded and disposed of. I
slid open the panels, stepped through and, holding my breath, strode
across the poisoned room with only one quick glance at the two still
forms on the mattress. Removing the barricading chair, I unlocked and
unbolted the door and passed out, closing it after me.

"Mrs. Kosminsky's room was at the back; a dreadful nest of dirt and
squalor, piled almost to the ceiling with unclassifiable rubbish. The
air was so stifling that I was tempted to raise the heavily-curtained
window a couple of inches; and thereby got a useful idea when, by
peeping over the curtain, I saw the flat leads of a projecting lower
story. The merchandise piled on all sides, and even under the bed,
included very secondhand wearing apparel, sheets, blankets, crockery and
toys. Among them were the fireworks, the masks and other appliances for
commemorating the never-to-be-forgotten 'Gunpowder treason,' and a
couple of large balls of a dark-colored cord sometimes used by costers
for securing their loads. That gave me an idea, too, as did the
frowsily-smart female garments. I appropriated four of the largest masks
and a quantity of oakum for wigs; some colored-paper streamers and
hat-frills; two huge and disreputable dresses--Mrs. Kosminsky's own, I
suspected--the skirts of which I crammed with straw from a