of many criminals.
Perhaps that accounted in a degree for the other's bared nerves.

"May take time," George jerked out again. "If I could only use a drill
and a touch of nitro."

He whistled softly.

"None of that rough business here. Good Lord, Simmons, don't let that
stuff go off."

Nora leaned forward.

"Scared, George?"

The question brought fire.

"Show me anybody else who'd do this stunt with more nerve."

"Slim must think a lot of you to put you at it twice."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Didn't you fall down on it last time?"

"Ask Slim," he said shortly. "This is the time I'm interested in, and if
we pull it off--"

He reached over, tapping the mahogany with ritual precaution.

"If we pull it off, Nora, you're going to quit fooling with me. I've
dangled a long time, and we'll have plenty of money then."

Physical greed for a moment drove the uneasiness from his eyes.

"Maybe, when I get the door open, you'll give me that kiss I've been
waiting for."

Garth felt shame that he had the impulse to risk his mission for this
woman he should have loathed. He wanted to take the burly, glistening
throat between his hands. He controlled himself with an effort. But he
could not experience for the girl that just loathing.

She had altered subtly. At George's question her form had lost its
alertness and had assumed the unyielding lines of a somnambulist; and
her voice had the colorless tone of one who speaks out of a dream.

"Maybe when you get it open, George. Time enough to think of that then.
I'm not so sure you'll open it. I'm not so sure of your nerve."

"Wait and see," he said. "You're a pretty one to talk about nerve. You
look as though you'd seen a ghost."

She sank back in a heap. She screened her face with her hands. George
stared.

"Now what--"

"Don't say that, George," she whispered. "Not here. Ever since I've been
in this room--it--it doesn't feel right."

She trembled.

"Hurry! I'm afraid here."

"Hold the light up," he said roughly. "What's the matter with you? This
isn't a graveyard."

He resumed his manipulation of the knob. Garth noticed that from time to
time he glanced quickly over his shoulder at the somber corners of the
room.

Nora had, to a certain extent, startled Garth. Her barely audible words
still breathed disquietingly in his ears. They had been like a bow drawn
across a string too tightly stretched.

She kept her face hidden now while George worked. Th