The footsteps sounded loud on the stone walk. Then a helmeted figure passed the alley, and went on its way.
Waiting until the sound died in the distance, the two stepped to the walk, looked hastily toward each corner, and ran across the street. Once in the station alley, they paused again.
“Look!” said Harvey, pointing; “he left the ladder.”
Sure enough, a light ladder reached from the ground nearly to a second-story window, which stood open.
“Well, here we are,” Mattison whispered. “How do you feel?”
“First-class. Better let me go,—I know the combination.”
Mattison stood at the foot of the ladder, and steadied it while Harvey stealthily climbed to the window. Drawing himself into the passage, the receiver set to work on the vault lock. He turned the knob very slowly, guarding against the slightest noise, but the faint light that came through the window was not enough to bring out the numbers. Harvey leaned back and considered. The scratching of a match would almost surely be heard by the detectives. He leaned out the window, and beckoned. Mattison came creeping up, and Harvey explained in a few whispered sentences. “Go back and look up the street,” he concluded. “We've got to light it outside the building.”
While Mattison was gone, Harvey felt his way through the Treasurer's office and paused to listen; then he drew up a chair which stood near the door, and climbing up, slipped off his coat and hung it over the half-open transom. Then he closed the transom, and the room was practically light proof. With the same caution he reached the floor, and tiptoed back to the window, where he found Mattison waiting on the ladder.
“All right,” whispered the Superintendent. “Are you ready?”
“Yes.”