“Certainly not while I’m here,” said the signorina. “You’ve only got to shut your eyes and lie still; but we’re going to make a little noise.”
There was in the room, as perhaps might be expected, a washing-stand. This article was of the description one often sees; above the level of the stand itself there rose a wooden screen to the height of two feet and a half, covered with pretty tiles, the presumable object 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.