ouse and farm belonged to it. To be sure it was the fruit of
money he had borrowed or taken from the company and had used in an
enormously successful deal; but the company had not earned it, and in
driving him into a corner, in forcing him to make instant restitution of
all its involuntary loans, it was justifying him in withholding this
part of them. Northwick was a man of too much sense to reason explicitly
to this effect, but there was a sophistry, tacitly at work in him to
this effect, which made it possible for him to go on and steal more
where he had already stolen so much. In fact it presented the further
theft as a sort of duty. This sum, large as it was, really amounted to
nothing in comparison with the sum he owed the company; but it formed
his only means of restitution, and if he did not take it and use it to
that end, he might be held recreant to his moral obligations. He
contended, from that vestibule of his soul where he was not a thief,
with that self of his inmost where he was a thief, that it was all most
fortunate, if not providential, as it had fallen out. Not only had his
broker sent him that large check for his winnings in stocks the day
before, but Northwick had, contrary to his custom, cashed the check, and
put the money in his safe instead of banking it. Now he could perceive a
leading in the whole matter, though at the time it seemed a flagrant
defiance of chance, and a sort of invitation to burglars. He seemed to
himself like a burglar, when he had locked the doors and pulled down the
curtains, and stood before the safe working the combination. He
trembled, and when at last the mechanism announced its effect, with a
slight click of the withdrawing bolt, he gave a violent start. At the
same time there came a rough knock at the door, and Northwick called out
in the choking, incoherent voice of one suddenly roused from sleep:
"Hello! Who's there? What is it?"

"It's me," said Elbridge.

"Oh, yes! Well! All right! Hold on, a minute! Ah--you can come back in
ten or fifteen minutes. I'm not quite ready for you, yet." Northwick
spoke the first broken sentences from the safe, where he stood in a
frenzy of dismay; the more collected words were uttered from his desk,
where he ran to get his pistol. He did not know why he thought Elbridge
might try to force his way in; perhaps it was because any presence on
the outside of the door would have terrified him. He had time to
recognize that he was not afraid