"It is easy enough. Open the safe, take out the papers, and put them where they cannot be found."
"Yes, but I do not know how to open the safe!"
"Don't you know the combination? Your husband said something about that, but I felt there must be some mistake."
"I did know the combination once, but I believe I have forgotten it," went on the fashionable woman. She knitted her brows. "Let me see. It was three 9's, I remember—9, 18, and 27."
"Yes! yes! And what else. See if you cannot think. It is so very important—not alone for your husband, but also for myself and others."
"I am trying to think. Let me see—yes, there was a 2 and a 3 and then another 2,—I mean so many times around."
"I believe I understand, Mrs. Bangs. You mean twice around to 9, three times around to 18, twice to 27, and then off at 0."
"Yes, yes, that is it!" burst out the lady of the mansion. "How clever some men are!" and she beamed on her visitor, who chanced to be well dressed and not bad-looking.
"If that is correct, I'll soon have the safe open," said Jasper Tuller, and walked over to where the strong box stood, in a corner of the apartment.
The lady of the mansion hovered near while Jasper Tuller got down on his knees and began to try the combination. He had to work the knob all of a dozen times before the door of the safe came open.