The dawn broke, and the awakening hum of the city grew louder and
louder. Peter rose and stretched himself.

"Your servants are moving about in the house," he remarked. "I think
that we might consider our vigil at an end."

Monsieur de Lamborne rose with alacrity.

"My friend," he said, "I feel that I have made false pretences to you.
With the day I have no fear. A thousand pardons for your sleepless
night."

"My sleepless night counts for nothing," Peter assured him; "but before
I go, would it not be as well that we glance together inside the safe?"

De Lamborne shook out his keys.

"I was about to suggest it," he replied.

The ambassador arranged the combination and pressed the lever. Slowly
the great door swung back. The two men peered in.

"Untouched!" de Lamborne exclaimed, a little note of triumph in his
tone.

Peter said nothing, but held out his hand.

"Permit me," he interposed.

De Lamborne was conscious of a faint sense of uneasiness. His companion
walked across the room and carefully weighed the packet.

"Well?" de Lamborne cried. "Why do you do that? What is wrong?"

Peter turned and faced him.

"My friend," he said, "this is not the same packet."

The ambassador stared at him incredulously.

"This packet can scarcely have gained two ounces in the night," Peter
went on. "Besides, the seal is fuller. I have an eye for these details."

De Lamborne leaned against the back of the table. His eyes were a little
wild, but he laughed hoarsely.

"We fight, then, against the creatures of another world," he declared.
"No human being could have opened that safe last night."

Peter hesitated.

"Monsieur de Lamborne," he said, "the room adjoining is your wife's?"

"It is the salon of madame," the Ambassador admitted.

"What are the electrical appliances doing there?" Peter demanded. "Don't
look at me like that, de Lamborne. Remember that I was here before you
arrived."

"My wife takes an electric massage every day," Monsieur de Lamborne
answered in a hard, unnatural voice. "In what way is Monsieur le Baron
concerned in my wife's doings?"

"I think that there need be no answer to that question," Peter said
quietly. "It is a greater tragedy which we have to face. I maintain that
your safe was entered from that room. A search will prove it."

"There will be no search there," de Lamborne declared fiercely. "I am
the ambassador of France, and my power under this roof is absolute. I
say that