"Hallo! What's the matter with you?" exclaimed Murray.
"Where's the key of the safe?" asked Walker, in reply.
"Well, you could have asked that question without looking at me so savagely, couldn't you?" said the chief clerk, as he stepped to the lower bunk and threw back the pillow. "What do you want of it?"
Walker did not answer. He sat on the stool and watched the movements of his superior, who looked all around the head of the bunk, and then uttering an exclamation of astonishment, began pulling off the quilts. In two minutes more the bed clothes, mattress and all, were piled in the middle of the floor, and Murray was searching his pockets with frantic haste.
"It's gone!" said he, dropping his hands by his side. "Look here, Walker," he almost shouted. "What are you up to? Hand it here."
The second clerk very coolly took the key out of his pocket and laid it upon the desk.
"I came in just in the nick of time," said he. "I found Ackerman trying to open the safe?"
Murray started as if he had been shot, and leaned heavily on the desk for support.
"I have thought all along that you were altogether too free with him," added the second clerk. "Do you generally keep the key under your pillow?"
"Always," replied Murray. "It is safe there, and if I carried it about with me I might lose it, you know."