ck. Wake up! Wake up!"

She stirred heavily, uneasily, drowsily.

"Wake up! Wake up!" he repeated. "Look what time it is."

She sat up with a gasp, pressing her hands to her head.

"Oh, what is it?" she exclaimed. "My head! How it throbs!"

"It's nearly ten o'clock," Eustace cried. "I don't hear anyone moving.
The bank must be open in five minutes."

He hurried across the landing to his assistant's room and
unceremoniously opened the door.

His assistant was in bed in a heavy sleep.

"Harding! Fred! Wake up, man! Do you know what time it is?" he said, as
he grabbed the sleeper's arm and shook him so vigorously that he pulled
him half out of bed.

Sleepily Harding's eyelids lifted to reveal glazed and lack-lustre eyes.

"What's up?" he mumbled. "What's the matter now?"

"Look at the time," Eustace cried excitedly.

Harding pushed his hand under his pillow, raised himself on his arm and
flung the pillow over.

"Where's my watch?" he exclaimed. "Where has it gone?"

"Don't you hear me say it is nearly ten o'clock? What on earth do you
mean by sleeping to this hour when the bank ought to be open?"

Harding blinked at his pyjama-clad manager.

"You don't seem to have been up so very long," he grumbled. "But where's
my jolly watch gone? I'll swear I put it under my pillow last night. Are
you having a joke? Have you hidden it?"

"I have not touched your watch. I tell you it's ten o'clock and the
bank----"

"Then someone has stolen it," Harding exclaimed as he sat up.

The pupils of Eustace's eyes contracted to pinpoints. With an
inarticulate cry he dashed from the room and rushed to the stairs. He
heard his wife call from the servant's room but paid no heed to the
words.

Down the stairs he plunged, springing across the passage to the door
leading from the residential portion of the building to the banking
chamber.

The door was locked.

"Thank God!" he exclaimed. "I was afraid it had been broken into."

He ran upstairs again, meeting his wife at the top.

"I can't wake that girl, Charlie. What shall I do?" she said.

"Shy cold water over her," he answered abruptly as he went on to his
room, where he seized his clothes and fumbled nervously for his keys.

They were in the pocket where he always kept them.

The discovery reassured him. Whatever else had happened, the bank was
safe, for without the keys no one would be able to get at the cash. It
was curious how everyone in the house had oversle