the
survey, Garson crossed to the hall door. He moved with alert assurance,
lithely balanced on the balls of his feet, noiselessly. At the hall door
he listened for any sound of life without, and found none. The door into
the passage that led to the store-room where the detectives waited next
engaged his business-like attention. And here, again, there was naught
to provoke his suspicion.

These preliminaries taken as measures of precaution, Garson went boldly
to the small table that stood behind the couch, turned the button,
and the soft glow of an electric lamp illumined the apartment. The
extinguished torch was thrust back into his pocket. Afterward he carried
one of the heavy chairs to the door of the passage and propped it
against the panel in such wise that its fall must give warning as to the
opening of the door. His every action was performed with the maximum of
speed, with no least trace of flurry or of nervous haste. It was evident
that he followed a definite program, the fruit of precise thought guided
by experience.

It seemed to him that now everything was in readiness for the coming of
his associates in the commission of the crime. There remained only to
give them the signal in the room around the corner where they waited at
a telephone. He seated himself in Gilder's chair at the desk, and drew
the telephone to him.

"Give me 999 Bryant," he said. His tone was hardly louder than a
whisper, but spoken with great distinctness.

There was a little wait. Then an answer in a voice he knew came over the
wire.

But Garson said nothing more. Instead, he picked up a penholder from
the tray on the desk, and began tapping lightly on the rim of the
transmitter. It was a code message in Morse. In the room around the
corner, the tapping sounded clearly, ticking out the message that the
way was free for the thieves' coming.

When Garson had made an end of the telegraphing, there came a brief
answer in like Morse, to which he returned a short direction.

For a final safeguard, Garson searched for and found the telephone
bell-box on the surbase below the octagonal window. It was the work of
only a few seconds to unscrew the bells, which he placed on the desk.
So simply he made provision against any alarm from this source. He then
took his pistol from his hip-pocket, examined it to make sure that
the silencer was properly adjusted, and then thrust it into the right
side-pocket of his coat, ready for instant use in d