Startled, "Why--?" he demanded.

"The risk," she replied. "We have been frightfully careless and
thoughtless."

Helplessly Maitland twirled the combination dial; without the
light he was wholly at a loss. But a breath later her skirts
rustled near him; the slide of the bull's-eye was jerked back, and
a circle of illumination thrown upon the lock. He bent his head
again, pretending to listen to the fall of the tumblers as the
dial was turned, but in point of fact covertly watching the
letters and figures upon it.

The room grew very silent, save for the faintly regular
respiration of the girl who bent near his shoulder. Her breath was
fragrant upon his cheek. The consciousness of her propinquity
almost stifled him.... One fears that Maitland prolonged the
counterfeit study of the combination unnecessarily.

Notwithstanding this, she seemed amazed by the ease with which he
solved it. "Wonderful!" she applauded, whispering, as the heavy
door swung outward without a jar.

"Hush!" he cautioned her.

In his veins that night madness was running riot, swaying him to
its will. With never a doubt, never a thought of hesitancy, he
forged ahead, wilfully blind to consequences. On the face of it he
was playing a fool's part; he knew it; the truth is simply that he