essary for opening the
safe, before those opening it suffered interruption.

Santoine felt, therefore, that the probabilities were that Eaton's
enemies had opened the safe and had been surprised by Eaton. But if
they had opened the safe, they were not only Eaton's enemies; they were
also Santoine's; they were the men who threatened Santoine's trust.

Those whom Eaton had fought in the room had had perfect opportunity for
killing Santoine, if they wished. He had stood first in the dark with
the electric torch in his hand; then he had been before them in the
light after Blatchford had entered. But Santoine felt certain no one
had made any attack upon him at any moment in the room; he had had no
feeling, at any instant, that any of the shots fired had been directed
at him. Blatchford, too, had been unattacked until he had made it
plain that he had recognized one of the intruders; then, before
Blatchford could call the name, he had been shot down.

It was clear, then, that what had protected Santoine was his blindness;
he had no doubt that, if he had been able to see and recognize the men
in the room after the lights were turned on, he would have been shot
down also. But Santoine recognized that this did not fully account for
his immunity. Two weeks before, an attack which had been meant for
Eaton had struck down Santoine instead; and no further attempt against
Eaton had been made until it had become publicly known that Santoine
was not going to die. If Santoine's death would have served for
Eaton's death two weeks before, why was Santoine immune now? Did
possession of the contents of Santoine's safe accomplish the same thing
as Santoine's death? Or more than his death for these men? For what
men?

It was not, Santoine was certain, Eaton's presence in the study which
had so astounded Blatchford; Wallace and Eaton had passed days
together, and Blatchford was accustomed to Eaton's presence in the
house. Some one whom Blatchford knew and whose name Santoine also
would know and whose presence in the room was so strange and
astonishing that Blatchford had tried to prepare Santoine for the
announcement, had been there. The man whose name was on Blatchford's
tongue, or the companion of that man, had shot Blatchford rather than
let Santoine hear the name.

The blind man stirred upon his bed.

"Do you want something, Mr. Santoine?" the nurse asked. The blind man
did not answer. He was beginning to find these eve