He shook his head.
"Nothing definite, only for the last few hours I have felt that things here are reaching a crisis. There is something going on around us, something which seems to fill Fischer and his friends with confidence, something which I don't quite understand, and which it is my business to understand. That is really what is worrying me."
She nodded sympathetically and glanced around for a moment.
"Let me tell you something," she whispered. "This evening my uncle came into my room just before dinner. There is a little safe built in the wall for jewellery. He begged for the loan of it. His library safe, he said, was out of order. I couldn't see what he put in, but when he had closed the door he stood looking at it for a moment curiously. I made some jesting remark about its being a treasure chest, but he answered me seriously. 'You are going to sleep to-night, Pamela,' he said, 'within a few yards of a dozen or so of written words which will change the world's history.'"
Lutchester was listening intently. There was a prolonged pause.
"Well?" he asked, at last.
She glanced at the little Yale key which hung from her bracelet.
"Nothing! I was just wondering how I should be able to sleep through the night without opening the safe."
"But surely your uncle didn't give you the key!"
She shook her head.