ld contribute what
lay in her power.

The next day Storri received from the San Reve a ground-plan of the
Treasury Building. It exhibited in red ink the vault that held the gold
reserve. Storri gazed upon that oblong smudge of red and studied its
location with the devotion of a poet.

And now what was to be more expected than that the curious Czar would
ask questions of Storri, when that illustrious Russian returned to St.
Petersburg, concerning those many superiorities which the American
buildings possessed? The thought set the indefatigable Storri to
visiting the public buildings. He made a tour of the State War and Navy
Building, the Corcoran Gallery, the Capitol, and finally the Treasury
Building. Who should escort him through that latter grim, gray edifice
but an Assistant Secretary? The affable A. S. had met Storri at the
club; certainly he could do no less than give him the polite credit of
his countenance for his instructive rambles. Under such distinguished
patronage Storri went from roof to basement; even the vault that guarded
the nation's gold was thrown open for his regard.

This gold vault was of particular moment to Storri; his Czar had laid
weight upon that vault. Yes; he, Storri, could see how it was
constructed--thick walls of masonry--an inner lining of chilled steel
that would laugh at drills and almost break the teeth of nitric
acid--the steel ceiling and sides bolted to the masonry--the floor,
steel slabs two feet in width, laid side by side but not bolted, and
bedded upon masonry that rested on the ground! Surely, nothing could be
more solid or more secure! The door and the complicated machinery that
locked it were wonders, marvels! Nowhere had he, Storri, beheld such a
door or such a lock, and he had peeped into the strong rooms of a dozen
kings. The gold, too, one hundred and ninety-three millions in all,
packed five thousand dollars to a sack in little canvas sacks like bags
of birdshot, and each sack weighing twenty pounds--Storri saw it all!

"And yet," quoth Storri, giving the polite Assistant Secretary a kind of
leer, "do not that door and lock remind you of the chains and locks upon
your leathern letterbags?--a leathern bag which the most ignorant of men
would slash wide open with a penknife in an instant and never worry
chains and locks?"

Storri traced that drain in its course to the river. It ran south past
the corner of the Treasury Building for the matter of a hundred yards or
m