Her agony at the interruption and the few necessary words it involved caused the visitor to stare. But she was able to make herself intelligible and to turn him over to one of the clerks, after which she rejoined Johnson, closing the door quietly behind her.
His greeting was characteristic.
"You waste breath," said he, "by all this emotion. You'll need it to open the safe."
"What guarantee have I that you will keep your part of the contract?" she cried. "I sing—the door opens—you help yourself, and you go. That does not restore to me my father."
"Oh, I'll play fair. In proof of it, here's my pistol. If on our going out I do not stop with you at the telephone and let you communicate with your father and send my own message of release, then shoot me in the back. I give you leave."
Taking the pistol he held out, she cocked it, and looking into the chambers, found they were all full.
"I know how to use it," she said simply.
Admiration showed in his face. He bowed and pointed toward the tube.