ject being to
protect the wall paper. I never saw a more innocent-looking bit
of furniture; it might have stood in a lady's dressing-room. The
signorina went up to it and _slid_ it gently on one side; it moved in
a groove! Then she pressed a spot in the wall behind and a small piece
of it rolled aside, disclosing a keyhole.

"He's taken the key, of course," she said. "We must break it open.
Who's got a hammer?"

Tools were procured, and, working under the signorina's directions,
after a good deal of trouble, we laid bare a neat little safe embedded
in the wall. This safe was legibly inscribed on the outside "Burglar's
Puzzle." We however, were not afraid of making a noise, and it only
puzzled us for ten minutes.

When opened it revealed a Golconda! There lay in securities and cash
no less than five hundred thousand dollars!

We smiled at one another.

"A sad revelation!" I remarked.

"Hoary old fox!" said the colonel.

No wonder the harbor works were unremunerative in their early stages.
The President must have kept them at a very early stage.

"What are you people up to?" cried Carr.

"Rank burglary, my dear boy," I replied, and we retreated with our
spoil.

"Now," said I to the colonel, "what are you going to do?"

"Why, what do you think, Mr. Martin?" interposed the signorina. "He's
going to give you your money, and divide the rest with his sincere
friend Christina Nugent."

"Well, I suppose so," said the colonel. "But it strikes me you're
making a good thing of this, Martin."

"My dear colonel," said I, "a bargain is a bargain; and where would
you have been without my money?"

The colonel made no reply, but handed me the money, which I liked much
better. I took the three hundred and twenty thousand dollars and said:

"Now, I can face the world, an honest man."

The signorina laughed.

"_I_ am glad," she said, "chiefly for poor old Jones' sake. It'll take
a load off his mind."

The colonel proceeded to divide the remainder into two little heaps,
of which he pushed one over to the signorina. She took it gayly, and
said:

"Now I shall make curl papers of half my bonds, and I shall rely on
the--what do you call it?--the Provisional Government to pay the rest.
You remember about the house?"

"I'll see about that soon," said the colonel impatiently. "You two
seem to think there's nothing to do but take the money. You forget
we've got to make our position safe."

"Exactly. The colonel's govern