beating of her heart. Fancy! Imagination! The darkness played
strange tricks! It - it wasn't so easy to keep one' s nerve. She
could have sworn that she had heard some sort of movement back
there down the shop.

Angry with herself, she thrust her hand into the opening now and
felt hurriedly around. Yes, there it was! Her fingers touched
what was evidently a little knob or button. She pressed upon it.
There was a faint, answering click. She turned on the flashlight
again. What had before appeared to be nothing but one of the wide,
pearl inlaid partitions between two of the smaller drawers, was
protruding invitingly outward now by the matter of an inch or so.
Rhoda Gray pulled it open. It was very shallow, scarcely
three-quarters of an inch in depth, but it was quite long enough,
and quite wide enough for its purpose! Inside, there lay a little
pile of banknotes, banknotes of very large denomination - the one
on top was a thousand-dollar bill.

She reached in and took out the money-and then from Rhoda Gray's
lips there came a little cry, the flashlight dropped from her hand
and smashed to the floor, and she was clinging desperately to the
edge of the escritoire for support. The shop was flooded with light.
Over by the side wall, one hand still on the electric-light switch,
the other holding a leveled revolver, stood a man.

And then the man spoke - with an oath - with curious amazement:

"My God - a woman!"

She did not speak, or stir. It seemed as though not fear, but