mpany, and I don't
propose to try to borrow them surreptitiously, even temporarily, from an
incorporated institution. It is not only a dangerous but a criminal
operation. Does your employer know that you have taken them?"

"My employer?" stammered Grouch, taken off his guard.

"Yes. Aren't you the confidential secretary of Mr. ----?" Here Holmes
mentioned the name of the eminent financier and philanthropist. No one would
have suspected, from the tone of his voice, that Holmes was perfectly aware
that Grouch and the eminent financier were one and the same person. The idea
seemed to please and steady the visitor.

"Why--ah--yes--I am Mr. Blank's confidential secretary," he blurted out.
"And--ah--of course Mr. Blank does not know that I have speculated with the
bonds and lost them."

"The bonds are--"

"In the hands of Bunker & Burke. I had hoped you would be able to suggest
some way in which I could get hold of them long enough to turn them over to
young Wilbraham, and then, in some other way, to restore them later to
Bunker & Burke."

"That is impossible," said Raffles Holmes. "For the reasons stated, I cannot
be party to a criminal operation."

"It will mean ruin for me if it cannot be done," moaned Grouch. "For Mr.
Blank as well, Mr. Holmes; he is so deep in the market he can't possibly
pull out. I thought possibly you knew of some reformed cracksman who would
do this one favor for me just to tide things over. All we need is three
weeks' time--three miserable little weeks."

"Can't be done with a safe-deposit company at the other end of the line,"
said Raffles Holmes. "If it were Mr. Blank's own private vault at his home
it would be different. That would be a matter between gentlemen, between Mr.
Blank and myself, but the other would put a corporation on the trail of the
safe-breaker--an uncompromising situation."

Grouch's eye glistened.

"You know a man who, for a consideration and with a guarantee against
prosecution, would break open my--I mean Mr. Blank's private vault?" he
cried.

"I think so," said Raffles Holmes, noncommittally. "Not as a crime, however,
merely as a favor, and with the lofty purpose of saving an honored name from
ruin. My advice to you would be to put a dummy package, supposed to contain
the missing bonds, along with about $30,000 worth of other securities in
that vault, and so arrange matters that on the night preceding the date of
young Wilbraham's majority, the man I will send y