ou shall have the
opportunity to crack it open and get away with the stuff unmolested and
unseen. Next day young Wilbraham will see for himself why it is that Mr.
Blank cannot turn over the trust. That is the only secure and I may say
decently honest way out of your trouble."

"Mr. Raffles Holmes, you are a genius!" cried Grouch, ecstatically. And then
he calmed down again as an unpleasant thought flashed across his mind. "Why
is it necessary to put $30,000 additional in the safe, Mr. Holmes?"

"Simply as a blind," said Holmes. "Young Wilbraham would be suspicious if
the burglar got away with nothing but his property, wouldn't he?"

"Quite so," said Grouch. "And now, Mr. Holmes, what will this service cost
me?"

"Five thousand dollars," said Holmes.

"Phe-e-e-w!" whistled Grouch. "Isn't that pretty steep?"

"No, Mr. Grouch. I save two reputations--yours and Mr. Blank's. Twenty-five
hundred dollars is not much to pay for a reputation these days--I mean a
real one, of course, such as yours is up to date," said Holmes, coldly.

"Payable by certified check?" said Grouch.

"Not much," laughed Holmes. "In twenty-dollar bills, Mr. Grouch. You may
leave them in the safe along with the other valuables."

"Thank you, Mr. Holmes," said Grouch, rising. "It shall be as you say.
Before I go, sir, may I ask how you knew me and by what principle of
deduction you came to guess my business so accurately?"

"It was simple enough," said Holmes. "I knew, in the first place, that so
eminent a person as Mr. Blank would not come to me in the guise of a Mr.
Grouch if he hadn't some very serious trouble on his mind. I knew, from
reading the society items in the _Whirald_, that Mr. Bobby Wilbraham would
celebrate the attainment of his majority by a big fete on the 17th of next
month. Everybody knows that Mr. Blank is Mr. Wilbraham's trustee until he
comes of age. It was easy enough to surmise from that what the nature of the
trouble was. Two and two almost invariably make four, Mr. Grouch."

"And how the devil," demanded Grouch, angrily--"how the devil did you know I
was Blank?"

"Mr. Blank passes the plate at the church I go to every Sunday," said
Holmes, laughing, "and it would take a great sight more than a two-dollar
wig and a pair of fifty-cent whiskers to conceal that pompous manner of
his."

"Tush! You would better not make me angry, Mr. Holmes," said Grouch,
reddening.

"You can get as angry as you think you can afford to,