was locked, but I tooked the
liberty of forcing it just to make sure. I ain't done no harm to speak
of."

"You found one locked, eh?" said Deede Dawson, and his smile grew still
more pleasant and more friendly. "That must have surprised you a good
deal, didn't it?"

"I thought as perhaps there was some one waiting already to give the
alarm," answered Dunn. "I didn't mind the old lady, but I couldn't risk
there being some one hiding there, so I had to look, but I ain't done no
damage to speak of, I could put it right for you myself in half-an-hour,
sir, if you'll let me."

"Could you, indeed?" said Deede Dawson. "Well, and did you find any one
sleeping there?"

But for that hairy disguise upon his cheeks and chin, Dunn would almost
certainly have betrayed himself, so dreadful did the question seem to
him, so poignant the double meaning that it bore, so clear his memory of
his friend he had found there, sleeping indeed.

But there was nothing to show his inner agitation, as he said, shaking
his head.

"There wasn't no one there, any more than in the other attics, nothing
but an old packing-case."

"And what?" said Deede Dawson, his voice so soft it was like a caress,
his smile so sweet it was a veritable benediction. "What was in that
packing-case?"

"Didn't look," answered Dunn, and then, with a sudden change of manner,
as though all at once understanding what previously had puzzled him.
"Lum-me," he cried, "is that where you keep the silver? Lor', and to
think I never even troubled to look."

"You never looked?" repeated Deede Dawson.

Dunn shook his head with an air of baffled regret. "Never thought of
it," he said. "I thought it was just lumber like in the other attics,
and I might have got clear away with it if I had known, as easy as not."

His chagrin was so apparent, his whole manner so innocent, that Deede
Dawson began to believe he really did know nothing.

"Didn't you wonder why the door was locked?" he asked.

"Lor'," answered Dunn, "if you stopped to wonder about everything you
find rummy in a crib you're cracking, when would you ever get your
business done?"

"So you didn't look--in that packing-case?" Deede Dawson repeated.

"If I had," answered Dunn ruefully, "I shouldn't be here, copped like
this. I should have shoved with the stuff and not waited for nothing
more. But I never had no luck."

"I'm not so sure of that," said Deede Dawson grimly, and as he spoke a
soft voice called dow