The diplomatist favored the young man with one sharp, inquiring glance,
and continued:

"The gentleman who paid the money remained here from four until nine
o'clock while I, personally, counted it. As I counted it I placed it in
canvas bags and when he had gone I took these bags from this room into
that," he indicated a closed door to his right, "and personally stowed
them away in the safe. I closed and locked the door of the safe myself;
I _know_ that it _was_ locked. And that's all, except this morning the
money was gone--every dollar of it."

"Safe blown?" inquired Mr. Grimm.

"No, Señor!" exclaimed the diplomatist with sudden violence. "No, the
safe was not blown! It was _closed and locked_, exactly as I had left
it!"

Mr. Grimm was idly twisting the seal ring on his little finger.

"Just as I left it!" Señor Rodriguez repeated excitedly. "Last night
after I locked the safe door I tried it to make certain that it _was_
locked. I happened to notice then that the pointer on the dial had
stopped precisely at number forty-five. This morning, when I unlocked
the safe--and, of course, I didn't know then that the money had been
taken--the pointer was still at number forty-five."

He paused with one hand in the air; Mr. Grimm continued to twist the
seal ring.

"It was all like--like some trick on the stage," the minister went on,