so loud as to be heard on the
side-walk. To this there came a faint response--a very faint shout
indeed; it sounded as if it were a mile away:--

"For God's sake, give me air! I am locked in here. Try and burst open
the safe!"

The two burglars did not stop to talk, but went at once to work as if
their own lives depended on the result, instead of the life of the
mysterious occupant of the vault. In less than four minutes they had a
hole, somewhat smaller than the business end of a collar-button, knocked
into the panel of the vault.

Then Pierre and Baptiste paused to wipe the sweat from their brows. The
man inside breathed.

It was now that the pair began to muse on the denouement. Could this be
a member of the firm or an employe? This hypothesis jeopardized the
success of the night's adventure, unless, when they had permitted the
prisoner to emerge, they bound and gagged him into silence.

On the other hand, this course would have an ugly look. If he resisted
it might mean murder in the end; whereas, if they did not let him out at
all, they would stand no chance of profiting by the pecuniary contents
of the safe. Besides, as the man could scarcely live thus until morning,
they would be responsible for his taking off. Thus reasoned Pierre and
Baptiste.

[Illustration: "BOTH MEN GREW PALE AS DEATH."]

These were not highly comforting reflections, but there was still
another and a better in reserve. What if, after all, the man were
himself a felon? Might he not be a companion crib-cracker? In that case
they would merely have to divide the spoils.

"Hey, in dere," cried Pierre, suddenly struck with an idea. "What is de
combination hof de safe?"

"Fifteen--three--seventy-three!" came back in sepulchral tones.

It was evidently growing harder and harder to draw breath through the
tiny aperture.

Thus it transpired that at the expiration of fifteen seconds the lock of
the vault gave back the same resonant click it had rendered eight
minutes previously. Thanks to the timely advent of Pierre and Baptiste
it opened as lightly, as airily, and as decisively as it had closed 480
seconds before on the unhappy accountant.

The head book-keeper gasped once or twice, but without any assistance
stepped out into the free air. He was very pale and his dress was much
rent and disordered when his feet touched the floor. But this pallor
quickly made way for a red flush at perceiving the two burglars, with
the implements of t