Shinburn met my advances in the spirit of friendliness and we soon came together. I shall never forget his remark when we met. “George,” said he, “I guess we were both a little too much set in our ways. I am only too glad to get into a job with you, and if we pull together we ought to be able to beat the safe-makers.” This renewal of our former partnership, in the last days of 1868, continued until the winter of 1870, during which time many profitable tricks were brought off, some of which are related in this work. Taking Shinburn to my rooms, I explained my scheme, told him what had been accomplished, and he became fully as enthusiastic over the prospect as I was; and we at once set to work to complete the job. CHAPTER XII JUGGLING WITH DEATH “Curses on it, George; my key won’t lock it!” groaned Mark Shinburn, as he turned, twisted, and in every way tried to move the bolt of the key lock in the door of the big steel vault. “Don’t give it up, Mark,” I whispered encouragingly, and he manipulated the key again, until, cold night as it was, the perspiration stood like tiny bubbles on his face. I could see it with the aid of the candle which threw a dim light in the banking office. “No use, George,” he burst out again, presently, throwing himself flat on the floor; “it won’t work, and the trick can’t be done to-night; we’ll have to try it another time!” “But we’ve got one of the money safes,” said I, by way of encouragement, as I swung open the steel door of a safe in the vault, disclosing many packages of money, mostly in large bills and not a small quantity of gold and silver. “Your key worked on this one to a nicety.” “Yes, curse it!” Shinburn mumbled; “it seems I got one to fit, but this one will not,” and he contemptuously tossed a key on the floor at my feet. “We might get along well enough under these conditions if I could relock the vault door, but I can’t. The duplicate key will unlock it, but will not, try as I may, lock it again. As it is, the vault door can’t be left as we found it, and we’re in a pretty mess.” “It unlocked it easily enough,” I commented, as I took the key from his hand, and, thrusting it home in the vault door lock, attempted to turn the bolt at lock again. In vain--I could not. “I’m losing my cunning,” went on Shinburn as I was working; “here I’ve made three keys, and only one will do the trick for which I shaped it.” I looked at my watch, for a new thought had come to me. I said, “Lock the money safe, Mark, and let’s get out of this, for the night clerk who sleeps in the bank will be here in ten minutes.” “I’ll do it, but what about the d--d vault door? We can’t lock that, and to leave it open means the certain discovery that some one’s been tampering with the vault. We’ve come a long way from New York to make a failure.”