agreed. "But, just the
same, I wake every morning cold with fear, and run to the 'phone to
make sure the cabinet's safe. If I could think of any further
safeguards, I would certainly employ them."

I looked at Godfrey searchingly, for it seemed to me that he must be
jesting. He smiled as he caught my glance.

"I was never more in earnest in my life, Lester," he said. "You don't
appreciate this fellow as I do. He's a genius; nothing is impossible
to him. He disdains easy jobs; when he thinks a job is too easy, he
makes it harder, just as a sporting chance. He has been known to warn
people that they kept their jewels too carelessly, and then, after
they had put them in a safer place, he would go and take them."

"That seems rather foolish, doesn't it?" I queried.

"Not from his point of view. He doesn't steal because he needs money,
but because he needs excitement."

"You know who he is, then?" I demanded.

"I think I do--I hope I do; but I am not going to tell even you till
I'm sure. I'll say this--if he is who I think he is, it would be a
delight to match one's brains with his. We haven't got any one like
him over here--which is a pity!"

I was inclined to doubt this, for I have no romantic admiration for
gentlemen burglars, even in fiction. However picturesque and
chivalric, a thief is, after all, a thief. Perhaps it is my training
as a lawyer, or perhaps I am simply narrow, but crime, however
brilliantly carried out, seems to me a sordid and unlovely thing. I
know quite well that there are many people who look at these things
from a different angle, Godfrey is one of them.

I pointed out to him now that, if his intuitions were correct, he
would soon have a chance to match his wits with those of the Great
Unknown.

"Yes," he agreed, "and I'm scared to death--I have been ever since I
began to suspect his identity. I feel like a tyro going up against a
master in a game of chess--mate in six moves!"

"I shouldn't consider you exactly a tyro," I said, drily.

"It's long odds that the Great Unknown will," Godfrey retorted, and
bade me good-bye.

Except for that chance meeting, I saw nothing of him, and in this I
was disappointed, for there were many things about the whole affair
which I did not understand. In fact, when I sat down of an evening
and lit my pipe and began to think it over, I found that I understood
nothing at all. Godfrey's theory held together perfectly, so far as I
could see, but it led now