So far as Anstruther was concerned, he might have been going about his usual business. He evidently had no fear on the score of interruption, and, indeed, there was little cause, seeing that the bank was so substantially built, and that from top to bottom the windows were protected with iron shutters.

"There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of," he said. "Good gracious, man, have you no pluck at all? I declare when I look at you that I could kick you as one does a cowardly cur."

But Carrington was impervious to insult. His face was ghastly, and the strong glare of the electric lights showed the beads of moisture upon his forehead.

"It is all very well for you," he growled. "The greater the danger the better you seem to like it."

"There isn't any danger," Anstruther protested. "Didn't you tell me that the police had no special orders as far as the bank was concerned? And everybody knows you have two night watchmen. Besides--oh, I have no patience with you!"

Anstruther turned away from the other, and began to fumble with the lock of a small black bag which he carried in his hand. He signified to Carrington that the latter should lead the way to the vaults below. Carrington produced a bunch of keys from his pocket. Anstruther sneered openly.

"Oh, that's it," he said. "Going to make it all smooth for us, are you? Of all the fools I ever came across! Why not go outside and tell everybody what we are going to do? Those are all patent shove locks, which the most expert thief could never pick, and you are going to tell the police later on that they have been opened with an ordinary key. Don't forget that you have got to face the police later on, and endure a cross-examination that will test your nerve to the uttermost. We are going to blow those locks up, and these are dynamite cartridges to do it."

Carrington's face was almost comic in its dismay. His ghastly, sweat-bedabbled face fairly quivered. But he made no further protest; he bent before the sway of Anstruther's master mind.

"I don't wish to interfere with you," he stammered. "But the infernal noise which is likely to----"

Anstruther kicked his companion aside.

"We either do it or we don't do it," he said. "It doesn't matter a rap one way or the other to me. Now which is it to be?"

Carrington hesitated no longer. He simply submitted himself entirely to the hands of his companion. In a dazed, fascinated kind of way he watched Anstruther insinuate a dynamite cartridge of minute proportions into the lock of the door. Then Anstruther drew Carrington back as far as possible, and the tiny fuse began to work. There was just a tiny spurt of blue flame, followed by a muffled shock, and the door fell slowly back.

"There," Anstruther cried triumphantly. "What do you think of that? Do you suppose that noise was heard outside? Now come on; let us serve them all alike."

The sound of their footsteps came to the ears of those watching in the counting house, and at frequent intervals the sullen explosions could be heard. Seymour rose to his feet, and whispered to his companions to follow. They crept cautiously along the flagged stairway until they reached the vault in which the two strong rooms were situated. A couple of electric lights gave sufficient illumination for the purpose of the amateur burglars, who were now busily engaged on the locks of the strong room. This was altogether a different business to blowing in the lock of an ordinary door, for the entrance to the strong room was secured with six bolts, all of which would have to be destroyed.

It was possible to find a secure hiding-place in the thick darkness outside the radius of the two electric lights. It was an interesting moment, and even Seymour was conscious of a sensation of excitement.

"Stand back," Anstruther said. "Everything is ready. You had better lie down on your face, as I am using six charges now instead of one. If they all go off together the thing will be accomplished to our mutual satisfaction."

The hint was not lost upon the listeners. There was a moment of intense excitement, and then came a dull, heavy roar, that seemed to shake the building almost to its foundations. Almost before the reverberations had died away, the huge door of the strong room swayed with a zigzag motion, and came smashing on the floor.

"There," Anstruther cried triumphantly. "What do you think of that, my friend? I flatter myself that that is a real workmanlike job. All you have to do now is to keep a stiff upper lip, and give the police all the information they require. Anything of value inside?"

"Not very much, I am afraid," Carrington responded. "A fair amount of old family plate, and perhaps twenty or thirty thousand pounds' worth of securities. I suppose we had better leave all that there; look better, don't you think?"

"Leave your head there," Anstruther sneered. "Now I put it to you, as a man supposed to be possessed of sense--would any thief leave a single item of value behind?"

Anstruther asked the question with a contemptuous curl of his lip. He was wiping his hands now on a piece of greasy cotton waste in which the dynamite cartridges had been wrapped to prevent contact.

"This is going to be a unique sort of burglary," he continued. "Trot out what you've got in the way of plate, and I'll take my pick of it as a kind of fee in reward for my night's service. If there is one soft place in my heart, it is for antique silver. Take your time--we are not in the least likely to be interrupted."

With his coat off and his shirt sleeves turned up, Carrington set to work in earnest. Once he had plunged headlong into the business, he seemed to have lost all his nervousness and hesitation. One after the other the great ............