“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 hamper; two large-sized and ragged suits of clothes, a woman’s straw hat, four pairs of men’s gloves and the biggest top-hat that I could find.  These I put apart in a heap with one of the balls of cord.  From the other ball I cut off some eight fathoms of cord, and, poking it out through the opening of the window, let it drop on the leads beneath.  Then I conveyed my spoil in one or two journeys across the murderers’ room, passed it through the opening, and closed the panel after me.

“Prudence suggested that I should dispose of these things first, and accordingly I stowed two masks, two pairs of gloves, one suit of clothes and one dress in the large chest of drawers.  The rest I carried down to the back yard, where already was a quantity of lumber belonging to a neighboring green grocer.  Returning upstairs, I called in at the bedroom to transfer the scanty contents of the two large drawers into the upper ones and then proceeded once more to the second floor front.  Time was passing and the glimmer of the gray dawn was beginning to struggle in faintly through the dirty windows.