In another moment he was back to the safe, and had the door open.
By this time Jake was at his side, and as Barney opened drawer after drawer, and brought forth packages of bank-notes and bags of specie, his excitement was intense and his happiness almost complete.
At length the safe was stripped, and the treasure had been carefully stowed away in the capacious pockets of the two burglars.
Barney was just shutting the safe door, and Jake was making sure that not a single gold piece had been dropped upon the floor, when a deep and hollow groan from the next room startled them both.
"Great Cæsar! what was that?" gasped Barney.
"Father Abraham! but it vos der dead man's ghost," muttered Jake, with a shiver.
"Did—did you kill the woman?" Barney at length managed to stammer forth.
"No, Parney; I only schust choked her a leetle."
"Oh, ah! that's it, then," exclaimed the other, greatly relieved. "Go back and gag her, or she'll be coming to and having the whole house roused before we can get out of it, confound her!"
Jake readily undertook this mission, and seizing a bed-sheet, endeavored to stuff it into the woman's mouth.