This was the "invention" to which Cleek had alluded.

Dollops, who was rather proud of the achievement, carried with him a full supply of ready-cut papers and a big collapsible tube of the viscid, ropy, varnish-like glue.
Meantime, Cleek, having left the boy sitting on the hat-box in the darkness, crossed the narrow street to the open doorway of No.

7, and, without hesitation, stepped in.

The place was as black as a pocket, and had that peculiar smell which belongs to houses that have long stood vacant.

The house, nevertheless, was a respectable one, and, like all the others, fronted on another street--this dark Toison d'Or being merely a back passage used principally by the tradespeople for the delivery of supplies.