light burned in a gas jet in the centre of the large room, which
was divided only by the wire screen which separated the customers' side
of the rail from the clerks; and almost beneath the light, exactly where
it could shine full upon the steel doors, was the huge safe of the
institution.

A person might not stand in front of that safe for a moment without
being in full view from the street should any one happen to pass there.
Nick saw that at a glance; but nevertheless Handsome silently placed a
drill and a bottle of liquid in his hand, and motioned that he was to
begin the dangerous part of the work.

"Didn't you bring a screen with you, you chump?" demanded Nick, in a
whisper. "If you had told me what the lay was, I'd have made one."

Handsome nodded, evidently well pleased; and at the same time he
produced a roll from under his coat, and gave it to the detective. Nick
unrolled it, and found that it was merely a piece of burlap, rather more
than a yard long, and about two feet in width, and with a roll of cord
attached to each corner of it.

He knew what that was intended for readily enough, and, taking it in his
hands, he crept forward without another word, and quickly attached the
four strings to objects which he selected as being situated about right
for his purposes.

In two minutes the screen was in place, and it afforded a perfect
shelter from view from the street, and just the sort of one that would
never be noticed from the outside at all, unless a person stopped at
the window and deliberately peered inside--and that nobody was likely to
do, unless something else first attracted attention.

In fixing the screen in place so quickly and perfectly, Nick evidently
won over not only Handsome, but the others; and now there was no more
question of his doing the drilling alone. Each man took his own part of
the work in silence, as if Nick had always been one of them; and,
besides, now there was no time to be lost.

Drilling through the steel doors of a safe is not an easy task, and it
is not done quickly, although expert burglars carry tools these days
which will cut anything.

They took their turns at the drill, as they took them also with the
acids and oil; and the work went on merrily until the holes were ready
for the charges.

And here again it seemed that Handsome was determined to try Nick out to
the last, for he bent forward and whispered in his ear:

"Prove one thing more, Dago, and you're made."