When Shadow left us outside and entered through the door which he opened by aid of the pass-key taken from the captured "lookout," he turned aside from the hall, into the store.
As before stated, one marked peculiarity of his was his light tread, so light that none but a suspicious and very acute ear could detect it.
From his pocket he took a wax match and lighted it. Before it had burned so low as to necessitate his blowing it out, he had gained such additional knowledge as he required, which was principally that the movable articles in the room were in the same positions as when he had come here to eat oysters on several occasions.
The trap-door that had been cut through the floor behind the counter was open; to its head Shadow softly went.
Noiselessly as a cat he descended the stairs to the cellar, and there was guided forward by the light that shone through the breach in the foundation wall.
He soon reached the breach, without having aroused any suspicion of his proximity, and obtained a hasty although comprehensive glance into the vault beneath the bank.
The burglars had had easy work, and had already secured the "swag."
In fact, at that very moment two of their number were engaged in bringing loads of specie to the breach.
So close were they that Shadow could not retreat without discovering himself to them.
He shrank back against the wall, and edging away, paused only when a dozen or fifteen feet from the breach.