"I went around by the bank this morning. It was a sight, I can tell you. I didn't see you in the line." There was an indirect question in Helen's eyes.
"I wasn't in line." Elijah could not restrain a sigh of relief as he spoke the half-truth.
"They say the line was begun before ten o'clock last night."
"I know it was, and it was kept too." Elijah turned to his desk and became absorbed in his work.
Whether or not Helen grasped the fact that her indirect question of Elijah remained unanswered, she pursued it no farther.
Toward noon, Elijah went to the safe which stood in the back of the office. He opened the door, took from his pocket a bunch of keys and unlocked his private box. Helen's back was towards him. Without taking his eyes from her, he drew from his pocket a small package and slipped it beneath a pile of papers. Then he closed and locked the door and returned the keys to his pocket. He reseated himself, swinging his chair from his desk.
"Are you busy, Helen?"
"Not very."
"What do you think this business means?"
"What, the run on the Pacific?"