"Not he!" Wolvert shrugged and strolled over to the picture. "He is sleeping the sleep of one who finishes off the wine-glasses left from dinner. I prepared one for his especial benefit."
"God!" The man called "Mike" recoiled. "You don't mean—"
"Of course not!" The languid tone was edged sharply. "I don't go in for anything crude! Caroline, too, is hors de combat or, as you would express it, dead to the world. Her midnight cup of tea before she went on guard outside Marcia's door was of specific brewing. Our beloved Marcia, I may add, has resumed her Macbethan promenades."
"Walkin' again in her sleep?" Mike paused uneasily. "I don't like that! It always means bad luck for some of us! I ain't stuck on this job anyway; we could drop it now an' stick to the old game, fifty-fifty—"
"Forget it!" Wolvert snatched the lantern from the other's hand and trained its single ray upon the right hand corner of the frame. "Watch me, and duck when the big swing starts."
Betty watched also, her heart racing once more as Wolvert's facile fingers found the spring and the portrait swung out in a mighty sweep, revealing the square steel sheet built compactly into the wall. The buzzer of the alarm whirred impotently and was still, and Mike dropped to his knees before the aperture with a grunt of satisfaction, his suddenly aroused scruples forgotten in professional interest.
His bullet-shaped head completely blocked Betty's view of the combination, but she heard the clink of the knob as it whirled under his hand. At length Mike sat back on his heels, swearing softly.
"It's no go!" he breathed. "Can't feel the drop of the tumblers. I'll have to use the soup, after all."
"Go to it," responded Wolvert savagely. "It's a tough layer but thin; look out she doesn't eat through."
Then followed an interminable age while Betty crouched, tense and cramped, listening to the click of tools and pressing a fold of her gown across her mouth and nostrils to keep out the pungent fumes which stole upon the air. Would they penetrate the closed doors above and give warning that treachery was afoot?