This unusual measure of precaution consummated, Raikes, with the first sense of security he had felt for the last twenty-four hours, presently succumbed to a sleep remarkable for its quick approach and its subsequent soundness.
Until early dawn, with the relaxation which is commonly the reward of innocence, Raikes slept away in unconscious travesty.
And when at last he opened his eyes he was as alertly awake as he had been profoundly asleep.
With a promptness due to his retiring forebodings, his habitual unrest and suspicion returned to him.
He was as vitally alive to the disturbing conditions of the day before as if they had been the subjects of an all-night meditation.
But the confidence of his bolts and bars, the recollection of his unusual measures of safety, reassured him somewhat.
It was, therefore, with a degree of composure he approached the door and satisfied himself that the bar and the locks had been undisturbed.
With equal assurance he rolled the bedstead from the radiator and pressed the button which operated the concealed spring, with a deliberation in which no suggestion of uneasiness appeared.
A quick revolution or so and the inner recess was revealed.
To his rapid accounting the quantity of bags was the same, and their relative positions, which he had so carefully arranged the night before, were undisturbed—but this one, that within easiest reach! What was it caused those sharp suggestions in its accustomed rotundity—those angular points?