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Putting his hand in his coat pocket, he could hold the end of the

handle all the way, so that it did not swing; and as the coat was

very full, a regular sack in fact, it could not be seen from

outside that he was holding something with the hand that was in

the pocket. This noose, too, he had designed a fortnight before.

When he had finished with this, he thrust his hand into a little

opening between his sofa and the floor, fumbled in the left

corner and drew out the pledge, which he had got ready long

before and hidden there. This pledge was, however, only a

smoothly planed piece of wood the size and thickness of a silver

cigarette case. He picked up this piece of wood in one of his

wanderings in a courtyard where there was some sort of a

workshop. Afterwards he had added to the wood a thin smooth piece

of iron, which he had also picked up at the same time in the

street. Putting the iron which was a little the smaller on the

piece of wood, he fastened them very firmly, crossing and

re-crossing the thread round them; then wrapped them carefully

and daintily in clean white paper and tied up the parcel so that

it would be very difficult to untie it. This was in order to

divert the attention of the old woman for a time, while she was

trying to undo the knot, and so to gain a moment.