Elusive Isabel Part 10

"Your secretary--a servant--some member of your family might have seen you unlock the safe some time, and thus learned the combination?"

Senor Rodriguez did not quite know whether to be annoyed at Mr. Grimm's persistence, or to admire the tenacity with which he held to this one point.

"You must understand, Senor Grimm, that many state doc.u.ments are kept in the safe," he said finally, "therefore it is not advisable that any one should know the combination. I have made it an absolute rule, as did my predecessors here, never to unlock the safe in the presence of another person."

"State doc.u.ments!" Mr. Grimm's lips silently repeated the words. Then aloud: "Perhaps there's a record of the combination somewhere? If you had died suddenly, for instance, how would the safe have been opened?"

"There would have been only one way, Senor--blow it open. There is no record."

"Well, if we accept all that as true," observed Mr. Grimm musingly, "it would seem that you either didn't put the money into the safe at all, or--please sit down, there's nothing personal in this--or else the money was taken out of the safe without it being unlocked. This last would have been a miracle, and this is not the day of miracles, therefore--!"

Mr. Grimm's well modulated voice trailed off into silence. Senor Rodriguez came to his feet with a blaze of anger in his eyes; Mr. Grimm was watching him curiously.

"I understand then, Senor," said the minister deliberately, "that you believe that I--!"

"I believe that you have told the truth," interrupted Mr. Grimm placidly, "that is the truth so far as you know it. But you have stated one thing in error. Somebody besides yourself _does_ know the combination. Whether they knew it or not at this time yesterday I can't say, but somebody knows it now."

Senor Rodriguez drew a deep breath of relief. The implied accusation had been withdrawn as pleasantly and frankly as it had been put forward.

"I ran across a chap in New York once, for instance," Mr. Grimm took the trouble to explain, "who could unlock any safe--that is, any safe of the kind used at that time--twelve or fourteen years ago. So you see. I doubt if he would be so successful with the new models, with all their improvements, but then--! You know he would have made an ideal burglar, that chap. Now, Senor, who lives here in the legation with you?"

"My secretary, Senor Diaz, my daughter Inez, and just at the moment, a Miss Thorne--Miss Isabel Thorne," the senor informed him. "Also four servants--two men and two women."

"I've had the pleasure of meeting your daughter and Miss Thorne," Mr.

Grimm informed him. "Now, suppose we take a look at the safe?"

"Certainly."

Senor Rodriguez started toward the closed door just as there came a timid knock from the hall. He glanced at Mr. Grimm, who nodded, then he called:

"Come in!"

The door opened, and Miss Thorne entered. She was clad in some filmy, gossamer-like morning gown with her radiant hair caught up on her white neck. At sight of Mr. Grimm the blue-gray eyes opened as if in surprise, and she paused irresolutely.

"I beg your pardon, Senor," she said, addressing the diplomatist. "I did not know you were engaged. And Mr. Grimm!" She extended a slim, white hand, and the young man bowed low over it. "We are old friends," she explained, smilingly, to the minister. Then: "I think I must have dropped my handkerchief when I was in here yesterday with Inez. Perhaps you found it?"

"_Si, Senorita_," replied Senor Rodriguez gallantly. "It is on my desk in here. Just a moment."

He opened the door and pa.s.sed into the adjoining room. Mr. Grimm's eyes met those of Miss Isabel Thorne, and there was no listlessness in them now, only interest. She smiled at him tauntingly and lowered her lids.

Senor Rodriguez appeared from the other room with the handkerchief.

"_Mil gracias, Senor_," she thanked him.

"_No hay de que, Senorita_," he returned, as he opened the door for her.

"_Monsieur Grimm, au revoir_!" She dropped a little curtsey, and still smiling, went out.

"She is charming, Senor," the diplomatist a.s.sured him enthusiastically, albeit irrelevantly. "Such vivacity, such personality, such--such--she is charming."

"The safe, please," Mr. Grimm reminded him.

X

A SAFE OPENING

Together they entered the adjoining room, which was small compared to the one they had just left. Senor Rodriguez used it as a private office.

His desk was on their right between two windows overlooking the same pleasant little garden which was visible from the suite of tiny drawing-rooms farther along. The safe, a formidable looking receptacle of black enameled steel, stood at their left, closed and locked. The remaining wall s.p.a.ce of the room was given over to oak cabinets, evidently a storage place for the less important legation papers.

"Has any one besides yourself been in this room to-day?" Mr. Grimm inquired.

"Not a soul, Senor," was the reply.

Mr. Grimm went over and examined the windows. They were both locked inside; and there were no marks of any sort on the sills.

"They are just as I left them last night," explained Senor Rodriguez. "I have not touched them to-day."

"And there's only one door," mused Mr. Grimm, meaning that by which they had entered. "So it would appear that whoever was here last night entered through that room. Very well."

He walked around the room once, opening and shutting the doors of the cabinets as he pa.s.sed, and finally paused in front of the safe. A brief examination of the nickeled dial and handle and of the enameled edges of the heavy door satisfied him that no force had been employed--the safe had merely been unlocked. Whereupon he sat himself down, cross-legged on the floor, in front of it.

"What are the first and second figures of the combination?" he asked.

"Thirty-six, then back to ten."

Mr. Grimm set the dial at thirty-six, and then, with his ear pressed closely against the polished door, turned the dial slowly back. Senor Rodriguez stood looking on helplessly, but none the less intently. The pointer read ten, then nine, eight, seven, five. Mr. Grimm gazed at it thoughtfully, after which he did it all over again, placidly and without haste.

"Now, we'll look inside, please," he requested, rising.

Senor Rodriguez unlocked the safe the while Mr. Grimm respectfully turned his eyes away, then pulled the door wide open. The books had been piled one on top of another and thrust into various pigeonholes at the top. Mr. Grimm understood that this disorder was the result of making room at the bottom for the bulk of gold, and asked no questions.

Instead, he sat down upon the floor again.

"The lock on this private compartment at the top is broken," he remarked after a moment.

"_Si, Senor_," the diplomatist agreed. "Evidently the robbers were not content with only fifty thousand dollars in gold--they imagined that something else of value was hidden there."

"Was there?" asked Mr. Grimm naively. He didn't look around.

"Nothing of monetary value," the senor explained. "There were some important state papers in there--they are there yet--but no money."

"None of the papers was stolen?"

"No, Senor. There were only nine packets--they are there yet."

"Contents all right?"