“Navigating the crowded streets with the heavy cart clattering behind me, I made my way westward, avoiding the main thoroughfares with their bewildering traffic, until I found myself in Theobald’s Row at the end of Red Lion Street.  Here I began to look about for a likely deputy; and presently my eye lighted on a sturdy-looking man who leaned somewhat dejectedly against a post and sucked at an empty pipe.  He was evidently not a regular ‘corner-boy.’  I judged him to be a laborer out of work, and deciding that he would serve my purpose I addressed him.

“‘Want a job, mate?’

“He roused at once.  ’You’ve ‘it it, mate.  I do.  What sort of job?’

“‘Pull this truck round to 6A Plimsbury Street and deliver the tubs.’

“’Ow much ‘ll you give me?’ was the inevitable inquiry.

“‘Old chap’ll give you half-a-crown, if you ask him.’

“’And ‘ow much am I to keep?’

“’Oh, we won’t quarrel about that.  I’ve got to see about another job or
I’d take ’em myself.  You deliver the tubs—­and be careful of ’em. 
They’re full of valuable chemicals—­and meet me here at ten o’clock and
I’ll give you another job.  Will that do you?’

“My friend pocketed his pipe and spat on his hands.  ‘Gi’ me the bloomin’ truck,’ said he; and when I had surrendered the pole to him, he set off at a pace that made me thankful for the stout rope lashings of the casks.

“I let him draw ahead and then followed at a discreet distance, keeping him in sight until he was within a few hundred yards of my house.  Then I darted down a side turning, took a short cut across a square, and, arriving at the museum entrance, let myself in with my Yale key.

“To remove my hat, overcoat and coat, to tear off the plaster and wash my nose, was but the work of a minute.  I had placed in readiness my laboratory apron, a velvet skull-cap and a pair of spectacles, and scarcely had I assumed these and settled my eyebrows into a studious frown, when the bell rang.  A glance into a little mirror that hung on the wall satisfied me as to the radical change in my appearance and I went out confidently and opened the street door.  My deputy was standing on the door-step and touched his cap nervously as he met my portentous frown.

“‘These here barrils for you, sir?’ he asked.

“‘Quite right,’ I replied in deep, pompous tones; ’I will help you to bring them in.’

“We brought the cart up on the pavement with the pole across the threshold, and I fixed the slide in position while my assistant cast off the lashings.  In a couple of minutes we had run the casks down the slide and I had the satisfaction of seeing them safely deposited in the hall.  The dangers and difficulties of the passage were at an end.

“I handed my proxy the half-crown which he sheepishly demanded, with an extra shilling ‘for a glass of beer,’ and saw him go on his way rejoicing.  Then I went back to the laboratory, stuck on a fresh strip of plaster, rubbed on a tint of grease-paint and resumed my disreputable garments.  When I came forth into the street, the hand-cart had already disappeared, leaving me to pursue my way unobserved to the rendezvous, where I presently met my friend, and, having rejoiced him with a further shilling, resumed possession of the cart.