A flashlight clicked above the closed ceiling panel. Exclamations of triumph came simultaneously from the four men above.
They were in a small, square room. Each corner had a short, angled wall. But these corners did not interest them. Before them, on the floor, lay two locked boxes.
Moose Shargin dropped on his knees and pried away the lock from one of the containers. Bob Maddox did the same with the other. Hiram Mallory held the flashlight and looked on with Briggs.
The lids of the boxes came open. The light revealed piles of paper, masses of bank notes, and a hoard of glittering gold coins!
“Galvin’s pile — the old hound!” exclaimed Maddox.
The spoils came out upon the floor. Briggs was with the others, now, helping them stack up piles of twenty-dollar gold pieces, and sheaves of bank notes of large denominations.
“Divvy now?” questioned Shargin, looking toward Mallory.
“Go ahead,” said the Chief. “Six piles. Two for me; one for each of you — and one for Theodore Galvin, to be divided equally among us.”
Bob Maddox was examining the pile of papers. He handed them over to Hiram Mallory.
“Bad stuff, these,” he declared. “Evidence that could be used against us if—”