'I expect it's in that drawer, where he throws all his private letters,' said Simon, pointing to a drawer in the big writing-table on the opposite side of the room from the piano. 'Is it locked--the drawer?' 'No.' 'Then open it.' 'It's the governor's private drawer,' said Simon. 'I've never--' 'Stuff!' Lily exclaimed, and she opened the drawer and drew out the topmost letter. It was on blue paper. 'Yes, that's it,' said Simon. 'The envelope was blue, I remember.' 'He must be in the Safe Deposit,' said Lily, perusing the letter with flying glance. And Simon, at length sufficiently emboldened, seized the letter and read: 'SIR, 'Mr. Polycarp has just been here, and accidentally left behind him keys of his vault, including safe of late Mr. Francis Tudor, etc. In these peculiar circumstances I shall be glad to know what I am to do. 'Yours respectfully, 'H. BROWN, 'Head Guardian, 'Hugo's Safe Deposit.' 'What on earth can Brown be thinking about?' muttered Simon. 'Hadn't he got enough gumption to send a messenger after Mr. Polycarp, without troubling the governor? He'll catch it.' 'Never mind that,' said Lily sharply. 'Run down to the Safe Deposit. Run, Simon.' It was as though a delay of minutes might mean ruin. Who could say what was even then happening in the disorganized and masterless departments? CHAPTER XII SAFE DEPOSIT The Safe Deposit at Hugo's was perhaps the most wonderful of all the departments. Until Hugo thought of it, and paid a trinity of European experts to design and devise it, there had existed no such thing as an absolutely impregnable asylum for valuables. In Dakota a strong-room alleged to be impregnable had been approached underground, tunnelled, mined, and emptied by thieves with imagination. In the North of England a safe, which its inventor had defied the whole universe of crime to open, had been rifled by the aid of so simple a dodge as duplicate keys. Even in Tottenham Court Road a couple of ingenious persons had burnt a hole in a guaranteed safe by means of common gas at three and threepence per thousand cubic feet. These surprises could not occur at Hugo's. His Safe Deposit really was what it pretended to be. All contingencies were provided for. It was the final retort of virtue to vice.