lf," Senor Rodriguez insisted.

"Your secretary--a servant--some member of your family might have seen
you unlock the safe some time, and thus learned the combination?"

Senor Rodriguez did not quite know whether to be annoyed at Mr. Grimm's
persistence, or to admire the tenacity with which he held to this one
point.

"You must understand, Senor Grimm, that many state documents are kept
in the safe," he said finally, "therefore it is not advisable that any
one should know the combination. I have made it an absolute rule, as did
my predecessors here, never to unlock the safe in the presence of
another person."

"State documents!" Mr. Grimm's lips silently repeated the words. Then
aloud: "Perhaps there's a record of the combination somewhere? If you
had died suddenly, for instance, how would the safe have been opened?"

"There would have been only one way, Senor--blow it open. There is no
record."

"Well, if we accept all that as true," observed Mr. Grimm musingly, "it
would seem that you either didn't put the money into the safe at all,
or--please sit down, there's nothing personal in this--or else the money
was taken out of the safe without it being unlocked. This last would
have been a miracle, and this is not the day of miracles, therefore--!"

Mr. Grimm's well modulated voice trailed off into silence. Senor
Rodriguez came to his feet with a blaze of anger in his eyes; Mr. Grimm
was watching him curiously.

"I understand then, Senor," said the minister deliberately, "that you
believe that I--!"

"I believe that you have told the truth," interrupted Mr. Grimm
placidly, "that is the truth so far as you know it. But you have stated
one thing in error. Somebody besides yourself _does_ know the
combination. Whether they knew it or not at this time yesterday I can't
say, but somebody knows it now."

Senor Rodriguez drew a deep breath of relief. The implied accusation had
been withdrawn as pleasantly and frankly as it had been put forward.

"I ran across a chap in New York once, for instance," Mr. Grimm took the
trouble to explain, "who could unlock any safe--that is, any safe of the
kind used at that time--twelve or fourteen years ago. So you see. I
doubt if he would be so successful with the new models, with all their
improvements, but then--! You know he would have made an ideal burglar,
that chap. Now, Senor, who lives here in the legation with you?"

"My secretary, Senor Diaz, my daughter Inez, and just at