a wavering path, strayed over the desk, and died away, shadowy
and formless, against the blackness of the opened recess door, against
the blackness of the great steel safe, the blackness of a huddled
form crouched against it. Only now and then, in a strange, projected,
wraithlike effect, the moon ray glinted timidly on the tip of a nickel
dial, and, ghostlike, disclosed a human hand.

Upstairs, Markel coughed again. Then from the safe a whisper,
heavy-breathed as from great exertion:

"MISSED IT!"

The dial whirled with faint, musical, little metallic clicks; then
began to move slowly again, very, very slowly. The moonbeam, as though
petulant at its own abortive attempt to satisfy its curiosity, retreated
back across the floor, and faded away.

Blackness!

Time passed. Then from the safe again, but now in a low gasp, a pant of
relief:

"Ah!"

The ear might barely catch the sound--it was as of metal sliding in
well-oiled grooves, of metal meeting metal in a padded thud. The massive
door swung outward. Jimmie Dale stood up, easing his cramped muscles,
and flirted the sweat beads from his forehead.

After a moment, he knelt again. There was still the inner door--but that
was a minor matter to Jimmie Dale compared with what had gone before.

Stillness once more--a long period of it. And then again that cough from
above--a prolonged paroxysm of it this time that went racketing through
the house.

Jimmie Dale, in the act of swinging back the inner door of the safe,
paused to listen, and little furrows under his mask gathered on his
forehead. The coughing stopped. Jimmie Dale waited a moment, still
listening--then his flashlight bored into the interior of the safe.

"The cash box, probably," quoted Jimmie Dale, beneath his breath--and
picked it up from where it lay in the bottom compartment of the safe.

The lock snipped under the insistent probe of a delicate little
blued-steel instrument, and Jimmie Dale lifted the cover. There was
a package of papers and documents on top, held together with elastic
bands. Jimmie Dale spent a moment or two examining these, then
his fingers dived down underneath, and the next minute, under the
flashlight, the morocco leather case open, the diamond necklace was
sparkling and flashing on its white satin bed.

"A tempting little thing, isn't it?" said Jimmie Dale gently. "It was
really thoughtful of you, Markel, to buy that this afternoon!"

Jimmie Dale replaced the necklace in