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A SAFE OPENING


Together they entered the adjoining room, which was small compared to
the one they had just left. Señor Rodriguez used it as a private office.
His desk was on their right between two windows overlooking the same
pleasant little garden which was visible from the suite of tiny
drawing-rooms farther along. The safe, a formidable looking receptacle
of black enameled steel, stood at their left, closed and locked. The
remaining wall space of the room was given over to oak cabinets,
evidently a storage place for the less important legation papers.

"Has any one besides yourself been in this room to-day?" Mr. Grimm
inquired.

"Not a soul, Señor," was the reply.

Mr. Grimm went over and examined the windows. They were both locked
inside; and there were no marks of any sort on the sills.

"They are just as I left them last night," explained Señor Rodriguez. "I
have not touched them to-day."

"And there's only one door," mused Mr. Grimm, meaning that by which they