tion on the way to the store Wolfson
glanced around him for the haggard features and the attenuated form of
Rubin, but without avail. He unlocked the store door and immediately
made a thorough examination of the stock and fixtures. Nothing was
missing, and, after consulting the figures furnished him by Borrochson,
he succeeded in opening the combination lock of the Rubin safe. He took
out the top drawer on the left-hand side and scrutinized it carefully.
No one could have detected the secret slide, which was now replaced.
Nevertheless, he found that, unless the drawer was handled with the
utmost delicacy, the secret slide invariably jerked out, for the
slightest jar released the controlling spring.

"The wonder is to me," he muttered, "not that Daiches and me discovered
it, but that Borrochson shouldn't have found it out."

He pondered over the situation for several minutes. If Rubin came in to
buy the safe, he argued, the first thing he would do would be to look
at the drawer, and in his feverish haste the slide would be bound to
open. Once Rubin saw that the diamonds were missing the jig would be up
and he, Wolfson, would be stuck with the safe. At length he slapped his
thigh.

"I got it," he said to himself. "I'll shut the safe and lock it and
claim I ain't got the combination. Borrochson must have changed it when
he bought it at Rubin's bankruptcy sale, and so Rubin couldn't open it
without an expert, anyhow. And I wouldn't bargain with Rubin, neither.
He wants the safe for five hundred dollars; he shall have it."

After emptying it of all its contents he closed and locked the safe and
sat down to await developments. Four o'clock struck from the clock
tower on Madison Square and Rubin had not arrived yet, so Wolfson lit a
fresh cigar and beguiled his vigil with a paper he had found under the
safe.

"I guess I'll lock up and go to my dinner," he said at eight o'clock.
"To-morrow is another day, and if he don't come to-day he'll come
to-morrow yet."

Half an hour later he sat at a table in Glauber's restaurant on Grand
Street, consuming a dish of _paprika schnitzel_. At the side of his
plate a cup of fragrant coffee steamed into his nostrils and he felt at
peace with all the world. After the first cup he grew quite mollified
toward Borrochson, and it was even in his heart to pity Rubin both for
the loss he had sustained and the disappointment he was still to
suffer. As for Daiches, he had completely passed out