McVay appeared to ignore this intimation.

"Yes," he said ruminatively; "I've done a lot of things in my time."

"Well, I don't want to hear about them," said Geoffrey, who had no
intention of being drawn into an intimate interchange. The burglar
looked more surprised than angered at this shortness, and only said:

"Would you have any objection to my putting a match to that fire?"

"No," said Geoffrey, and McVay, with wonderful dexterity, managed to
start a cheering blaze with his left hand.

For a few minutes Geoffrey's determined attention to his book
discouraged his companion, but presently rapping the pages of Tristram
Shandy with the back of his hand, he exclaimed:

"Sterne! Ah, there was a man! Something of my own type, too, it
sometimes strikes me. Capable, you know, really a genius, but so
unfortunately different from other people. Ordinary standards meant
nothing to him--too original--sees life from another standpoint,
entirely. That's me! I--"

"Sit down," roared Geoffrey.

"Oh, it's nothing, nothing," said McVay, "only I talk better on my
feet."

"Well, you wouldn't talk as well with a bullet in you."

McVay sank back again in his chair. "Yes," he said, "that's me. Why,
Holland, I have no doubt you would be surprised if you knew the number
of things that I can do--that I am really proficient in. Anything with
the hands," he waved his fingers supplely in the air, "is no trouble to
me at all. I have at once a natural skill that most people take a
lifetime to acquire."

"I'm told there's work for all where you are going."

McVay looked a trifle puzzled for an instant, but never allowing himself
to remain at a loss, he said:

"Work! Do you really mean to say that you believe in a utilitarian
Heaven, where we are going to work with our hands? For my part--"

"I had reference to the penitentiary," said Geoffrey.

"Oh, yes, of course, the penitentiary. There are some wonderful men in
the penitentiary. You don't admit that, I suppose, with your
conventional ideas; but to me they are just as admirable as any other
great creative artist,--sculptor or financier. I see you don't quite get
that. You are hemmed in by conventional standards, and your possessions,
and all the things to which you attach such great importance."

"I don't attach so much importance that I steal them from other people,"
said Geoffrey.

"Philistine, Holland, philistine! Is not any one who has anything
stealing from some one o