The Adventures of Dr. Thorndyke

Now, Silas Hickler was a case in point. Looking into his cheerful, round face, beaming with benevolence and wreathed in perpetual smiles, no one would have imagined him to be a criminal. Least of all, his worthy, high-church housekeeper, who witnessed his unvarying amiability, constantly heard him carolling light-heartedly about the house and noted his appreciative zest at meal times. Yet it is a fact that Silas earned his modest, though comfortable, income by the gentle art of burglary.

It is a precarious trade and risky, yet not very hazardous if pursued with judgment and moderation. And Silas was eminently a man of judgment. He worked invariably alone. He kept his own counsel. No confederate had he to turn King’s Evidence at a pinch; no one he knew would bounce off in a fit of temper to Scotland Yard. Nor was he greedy and thriftless, as most criminals are. His “scoops” were few and far between, carefully planned, secretly executed, and the proceeds judiciously invested in “weekly property.” Silas was connected with the diamond industry in early life and still engages in somewhat irregular dealings. In the trade, he was suspected of transactions with I.D.B.’s, and one or two indiscreet dealers had gone so far as to whisper the ominous word “fence.”

But Silas Smiled a benevolent smile and went his way. He knew what he knew, and his clients in Amsterdam were not interested. Such was Silas Hickler. As he strolled around his garden in the dusk of an October evening, he seemed modest, middle-class prosperity. He was dressed in the travelling suit on his little continental trips; his bag was packed and stood in readiness on the sitting room sofa.