He lighted his furnace, and then went and unlocked the room where he worked as a handle maker, and also as a cutler.

He entered briskly and opened the window.

The gray light of the morning came in, and showed him something on the inside of the door that was not there when he locked it overnight.

It was a very long knife, broad toward the handle, but keenly pointed, and double-edged.

It was fast in the door, and impaled a letter addressed, in a vile hand-- "TO JAK THRE TRADES." Henry took hold of the handle to draw the knife out; but the formidable weapon had been driven clean through the door with a single blow.
Then Henry drew back, and, as the confusion of surprise cleared away, the whole thing began to grow on him, and reveal distinct and alarming features.
The knife was not one which the town manufactured in the way of business, it was a long, glittering blade, double-edged, finely pointed, and exquisitely tempered.