It was impossible for him to carry the axe through the street in his hands.

And if hidden under his coat he would still have had to support it with his hand, which would have been noticeable.

Now he had only to put the head of the axe in the noose, and it would hang quietly under his arm on the inside.

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.