"Had he drawn up a deed of gift?"

"I do not know."

"Or made a will?"

Again Silva shrugged indifferently to indicate that he was also ignorant on that point, and I turned to Miss Vaughan.

"If there is a will," I asked, "where would it probably be?"

"There is a safe here," she said, "in which my father kept his papers of value," and she went to the wall and swung out a hinged section of shelving. The door of a safe appeared behind it.

I approached and looked at it, then tried the door, but it was locked.

"To open this, we must know the combination," I said; "or else we shall have to get an expert."

"I know the combination," she broke in; "it is ..."

But I stopped her.