Condemned to constant privations, he tried to
escape from the horrors of his real life by taking refuge in dreams.
Alone in his garret, after a day of unremitting toil, assailed by the
thousand longings of youth, Lecoq endeavored to devise some means of
suddenly making himself rich. All reasonable methods being beyond his
reach, it was not long before he was engaged in devising the worst
expedients. In short, this naturally moral and honest young man spent
much of his time in perpetrating--in fancy--the most abominable crimes.
Sometimes he himself was frightened by the work of his imagination: for
an hour of recklessness might suffice to make him pass from the idea
to the fact, from theory to practise. This is the case with all
monomaniacs; an hour comes in which the strange conceptions that have
filled their brains can be no longer held in check.
One day he could not refrain from exposing to his patron a little plan
he had conceived, which would enable him to obtain five or six hundred
francs from London. Two letters and a telegram were all that was
necessary, and the game was won. It was impossible to fail, and there
was no danger of arousing suspicion.
The astronomer, amazed at the simplicity of the plan, could but admire
it. On reflection, however, he concluded that it would not be prudent
for him to retain so ingenious a secretary in his service. This was
why, on the following day, he gave him a month's pay in advance, and
dismissed him, saying: "When one has your disposition, and is poor, one
may either become a famous thief or a great detective.
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