couple of commuters saving a dime by carrying our own hand-bags.

It was now six o'clock, and I pointed out to Edgar that at that
hour the only vaults open were those of the Night and Day Bank. And
to that institution in a taxicab we at once made our way. I paid
the chauffeur, and two minutes later, with a gasp of relief and
rejoicing, I dropped the suit-case I had carried on a table in the
steel-walled fastnesses of the vaults. Gathered excitedly around us
were the officials of the bank, summoned hastily from above, and
watchmen in plain clothes, and watchmen in uniforms of gray. Great
bars as thick as my leg protected us. Walls of chilled steel rising
from solid rock stood between our treasure and the outer world.
Until then I had not known how tremendous the nervous strain had
been; but now it came home to me. I mopped the perspiration from my
forehead, I drew a deep breath.

"Edgar," I exclaimed happily, "I congratulate you!" I found Edgar
extending toward me a two-dollar bill. "You gave the chauffeur two
dollars,"' he said. "The fare was really one dollar eighty; so you
owe me twenty cents."

Mechanically I laid two dimes upon the table.

"All the other expenses," continued Edgar, "which I agreed to pay,
I have paid." He made a peremptory gesture. "I won't detain you any
longer," he said. "Good-night!"

"Good-night!" I cried. "Don't I see the treasure?" Against the
walls of chilled steel my voice rose like that of a tortured soul.
"Don't I touch it!" I yelled. "Don't I even get a squint? "