He locked up his winnings in a little safe let into the wall. I
was standing by him, drinking, and I saw the combination. Jocelyn Thew was
sitting quite by himself, as though deep in thought.--We all got up to bed
somehow. I sat for some hours at the open window. Pretty soon I got sober,
and I began to realise what had happened. And all the time I thought of
that safe, chock full of money, and the combination ready set. I heard
Katharine moving about in her room, and I knew that she was waiting for me
to go and say good night. I wouldn't. I put on a short jacket instead of my
dress coat, and I took an electric torch out of my dressing case and I went
down-stairs. I'd made up my mind, Nora. I meant to rob that safe."
She was carried away by his narrative. He had let himself go now, speaking
in short, quick sentences. Yet his plain words seemed to paint with a
marvellous vividness the story he told. It seemed to her that she could see
it all, could realise what he went through.
"Go on, Dick," she whispered. "I understand."
"Well, I got down into the room all right, and I got the safe open, and
there was the money, and, right facing me, my letters and bonds, and pretty
well a hundred thousand dollars in cash. And then I saw the lights flare
up, and Murchison was there in his shirt and trousers.
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