"Where are you going?" he asked sternly.
"Outside," Geoffrey exclaimed. "A woman is there. She asks for assistance. Can you stand there calmly and see——"
"See you making an ass of yourself, eh? My dear boy, on my word of honor there is no woman in danger yonder. In a measure I am glad to hear that cry, though it proves to me that our allies have not been so artistic over their work as they might have been. You will not hear that cry again."
"Perhaps not," Geoffrey said, reassured considerably by Tchigorsky's placid manner; "but I hear footsteps outside."
Tchigorsky smiled. He had taken some steel bits from his pocket, but he replaced them again.
"If they are, then they are the footsteps of a friend," he said. "This being so, there will be no need for me to give you lessons in the way not to open a safe. Are you right? It seems as if the window was opening."
The window was indeed opening. It moved half an inch, and then there was a "hist," and something clanged on the floor. Tchigorsky took the matter as coolly as if it had all been arranged beforehand. He did not move as the window closed again and stealthy footsteps outside moved away.
"It is all right?" Geoffrey asked.
Tchigorsky smiled broadly.
"Splendid!" he said. "It could not have been better. My boy, this is the night's work which is going to crown our endeavors. Yonder we have the proofs, and here we have the means of getting them."