here, at night. This place with all its fabulous treasures must be
guarded constantly, now, every hour, as if the front door were
wide open."

The bars replaced and the window apparently locked as before,
Craig devoted his efforts to examining the packing cases in the
basement. As yet apparently nothing down there had been disturbed.
But while rummaging about, from an angle formed behind one of the
cases he drew forth a cane, to all appearances an ordinary Malacca
walking-stick. He balanced it in his hand a moment, then shook his
head.

"Too heavy for a Malacca," he ruminated. Then an idea seemed to
occur to him. He gave the handle a twist. Sure enough, it came
off, and as it did so a bright little light flashed up.

"Well, what do you think of that?" he exclaimed. "For a scientific
dark-lantern that is the neatest thing I have ever seen. An
electric light cane, with a little incandescent lamp and a battery
hidden in it. This grows interesting. We must at last have found
the cache of a real gentleman burglar such as Bertillon says
exists only in books. I wonder if he has anything else hidden back
here."

He reached down and pulled out a peculiar little instrument--a
single blue steel cylinder. He fitted a hard rubber cap snugly
into the palm of his hand, and with the first and middle fingers
encircled the cylinder over a steel ring near the other end.

A loud report followed, and a vase, just unpacked, at the opposite