to fit any
lock, of which he had the wards in wax, for a matter of say five
shillings, which was leaving a handsome margin of profit for himself, we
may remark in passing. Five shillings was a lot, Saurin thought, when
he was not sure that he would use the key if he had it. Marriner did
not know, perhaps it could be done for three; at any rate he might as
well have the wax by him in case he got a chance. Curiously enough, he
thought he had some in the house, though he sold all his honey in the
comb as a rule. But a hive had been deserted, and he knew he had melted
the wax down, and it must be somewhere. It was, and he found it, and he
got a key and showed Saurin how to take an impression of it.

"Why, you have done it before then!" said Saurin.

"P'raps," replied Marriner, with a side glance of his cunning eyes. "A
poor man has to turn his hand to a bit of everything in these hard
times."

It was an early winter, and the weather turned very cold, which caused a
great consumption of fuel. And one morning, on coming in to his tutor's
from early school, Saurin heard the small thunder of coals being poured
into the cellar, and saw the yard door open, a wagon outside, and a man
staggering from it under a sack. He ran up to his room, threw down his
books, took the wax, and went back to the yard door, where he took a
great interest in the unlading of the sacks. A fine sleet was falling,
with a bitter north-east wind, to make it cut the face, so that there
were none of the servants outside, and no one to see him but the two men
who were busied in their work. Never was such an opportunity. He had
the least possible difficulty in taking the key out of the lock,
pressing it on the wax in the palm of his hand, in the way Marriner had
shown him, and replacing it without attracting observation. Then he
returned to his room, whistling carelessly, and putting the wax, which
had the wards of the key sharply defined upon it, in a seidlitz-powder
box, to prevent the impression being injured, he locked it up in his
bureau and went to breakfast.

Now that this had been accomplished so favourably, it seemed a pity not
to have the key made. He might probably never want to use it; but
still, there was a pleasant sense of superiority in the knowledge that
he was independent of the "All In," and could get out at any hour of the
night that he chose. So the next time he went to Marriner's cottage he
took the box containing the wa