“I carried the male guy down to the yard, sat him on the barrow and put on his hat; and taking with me the remains of the ruined guys, which I decided to put away in the drawers, I returned for the second effigy.  I lashed the two figures very securely to the standards, fixed on their hats firmly, and attached their name-cards.  Then I went into the shop to attend to my own appearance.

“I had brought back from my Bloomsbury house the shabby overcoat and battered hat that I had worn on the last few expeditions.  These I now assumed; and having fixed on my cheek a large cross of sticking-plaster—­which pulled down my eyebrow and pulled up the corner of my mouth—­begrimed my face, reddened my nose, and carefully tinted in a not too emphatic black eye, I was sufficiently transmogrified to deceive even my intimate friends.  Now I was ready to start; and now was the critical moment.

“I went out into the yard, unlocked the gate, trundled the barrow out into the alley, and locked the gate behind me.  At the moment there was not a soul in sight, but from the street close by came the unmistakable murmur of a large crowd.  I must confess that I felt a little nervous.  The next few minutes would decide my fate.

“I grasped the handles of the barrow and started forward resolutely.  As I rounded the curve of the alley, a densely-packed throng appeared ahead.  Faces turned towards me and broke into grins; the murmur rose into a dull roar, and, as the people drew aside to make way for me, I plunged into the heart of the throng and raised my voice in a husky chant: 

  “’Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
  The Gunpowder Treason and Plot.’

“Through the interstices of the crowd I could see the soldiers still drawn up by the curb and even the machine gun was yet in position.  Suddenly the inspector and the sergeant appeared bustling through the crowd.  The former caught sight of me and, waving his hand angrily, shouted: 

“‘Take that thing away from here!  Move him out of the crowd, Moloney;’ and a gigantic constable pounced on me with a broad grin, snatched the barrow-handles out of my hands, and started off at a trot that made the effigies rock in the most alarming manner.

“‘Holler, bhoys!’ shouted the grinning constable; and the ‘bhoys’ complied with raucous enthusiasm.

“At the outskirts of the crowd Constable Moloney resigned in my favor, and it was at this moment that I noticed a manifest plain-clothes officer observing my exhibits with undue attention.  But here fortune favored me; for at the same instant I saw a man attempt to pick a pocket under the officer’s very nose.  The pickpocket caught my eye and moved off quickly.  I pulled up, and, pointing at the thief, bawled out, ’Stop that man!  Stop him!’ The pickpocket flung himself into the crowd and made off.  The startled loafers drew hastily away from him.  Men shouted, women screamed, and the plain-clothes officer started in pursuit; and in the whirling confusion that followed, I trundled away briskly into Middlesex Street and headed for Spitalfields.