“Oh that was an ugly situation,” remarked Peace.
“Yes,” whispered his companion, “it was an unfortunate affair altogether, but there was no help for it. I sprang out at once, for I saw the game was up, and escape was all I thought about.”
“But you did not succeed in getting clear off.”
“I shouldn’t be here if I had,” returned the convict, sulkily. “I wish I had never undertaken the job. I made a desperate fight for it, though, and was nearly getting away when the ‘bobby’ belaboured me most unmercifully with his staff. But I did not give in till I got knocked down insensible. My pal was more fortunate—he bolted and got clean away. Jim and myself got ‘copt’ (caught), and as we had first-class tools on us, new to the authorities here, they gave it us rather hot.”
“Ah, that they would be sure to do. Let them alone for that. But do you think you could have opened the safe?”
“Could I! Certainly. I would have managed it somehow, although I candidly confess it was a jolly good one of its sort. I should not have wasted much time in trying to pick the lock.”
“What did you intend to do, then?” inquired Peace.
“Well, you see,” said the other, in a reflective manner, “safes do give us chaps some trouble at times, but they’re to be mastered. Casey could open any safe, and there are many others in the profession equally clever as him. I flatter myself I’m one, but this you will say is vanity.”
“I don’t say anything of the sort. What one man can do another ought to accomplish.”
“You’ve heard of Casey?”