to my work, I
puzzled my brains about finding a place to lock it up in, where it would
not be exposed to the view of any chance passers-by who might stray into
the Black Cottage.

This was not an easy matter to compass in a poor house like ours, where
we had nothing valuable to put under lock and key. After running over
various hiding-places in my mind, I thought of my tea-caddy, a present
from Mrs. Knifton, which I always kept out of harm's way in my own
bedroom. Most unluckily--as it afterward turned out--instead of taking
the pocketbook to the tea-caddy, I went into my room first to take the
tea-caddy to the pocketbook. I only acted in this roundabout way from
sheer thoughtlessness, and severely enough I was punished for it, as you
will acknowledge yourself when you have read a page or two more of my
story.

I was just getting the unlucky tea-caddy out of my cupboard, when I
heard footsteps in the passage, and, running out immediately, saw two
men walk into the kitchen--the room in which I had received Mr. and Mrs.
Knifton. I inquired what they wanted sharply enough, and one of them
answered immediately that they wanted my father. He turned toward me, of
course, as he spoke, and I recognized him as a stone-mason, going among
his comrades by the name of Shifty Dick. He bore a very bad character
for everything but wrestling, a sport for which the working men of our
parts were famous all through the county. Shifty Dick was champion,
and he had got his name from some tricks of wrestling, for which he was
celebrated. He was a tall, heavy man, with a lowering, scarred face, and
huge hairy hands--the last visitor in the whole world that I should have
been glad to see under any circumstances. His companion was a stranger,
whom he addressed by the name of Jerry--a quick, dapper, wicked-looking
man, who took off his cap to me with mock politeness, and showed, in
so doing, a very bald head, with some very ugly-looking knobs on it. I
distrusted him worse than I did Shifty Dick, and managed to get between
his leering eyes and the book-case, as I told the two that my father was
gone out, and that I did not expect him back till the next day.

The words were hardly out of my mouth before I repented that my anxiety
to get rid of my unwelcome visitors had made me incautious enough to
acknowledge that my father would be away from home for the whole night.

Shifty Dick and his companion looked at each other when I unwisely let
out t