Her breath was
fragrant upon his cheek. The consciousness of her propinquity
almost stifled him.... One fears that Maitland prolonged the
counterfeit study of the combination unnecessarily.
Notwithstanding this, she seemed amazed by the ease with which he
solved it. "Wonderful!" she applauded, whispering, as the heavy
door swung outward without a jar.
"Hush!" he cautioned her.
In his veins that night madness was running riot, swaying him to
its will. With never a doubt, never a thought of hesitancy, he
forged ahead, wilfully blind to consequences. On the face of it he
was playing a fool's part; he knew it; the truth is simply that he
could not have done other than as he did. Consciously he believed
himself to be merely testing the girl; subconsciously he was
plastic in the grip of an emotion stronger than he,--moist clay
upon the potter's whirling wheel.
The interior of the safe was revealed in a shape little different
from that of the ordinary household strong-box. There were several
account-books, ledgers, and the like, together with some packages
of docketed bills, in the pigeon-holes. The cash-box, itself a
safe within a safe, showed a blank face broken by a small
combination dial. Behind this, in a secreted compartment, the
Maitland heirlooms languished, half-forgotten of their heedless
owner.
The cash-box combination offered less difficulty than had the
outer dial. Maitland had it open in a twinkling. Then, brazenly
lifting out the inner framework, bodily, he thrust a fumbling hand
into the aperture thus disclosed and pressed the spring, releasing
the panel at the back.
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