"You know, my dear chap," continued Mr Carlyle, sipping his black coffee and wondering privately whether it was really very good or very bad, "speaking quite seriously, the one fishy detail--our ginger friend's watching for the other to leave--may be open to a dozen very innocent explanations." "So innocent that to-morrow I intend taking a safe myself." "You think that everything is all right?" "On the contrary, I am convinced that something is very wrong." "Then why----?" "I shall keep nothing there, but it will give me the _entrée_. I should advise you, Louis, in the first place to empty your safe with all possible speed, and in the second to leave your business card on the manager." Mr Carlyle pushed his cup away, convinced now that the coffee was really very bad. "But, my dear Max, the place--'The Safe'--is impregnable!" "When I was in the States, three years ago, the head porter at one hotel took pains to impress on me that the building was absolutely fireproof. I at once had my things taken off to another hotel. Two weeks later the first place was burnt out. It _was_ fireproof, I believe, but of course the furniture and the fittings were not and the walls gave way." "Very ingenious," admitted Mr Carlyle, "but why did you really go? You know you can't humbug me with your superhuman sixth sense, my friend." Carrados smiled pleasantly, thereby encouraging the watchful attendant to draw near and replenish their tiny cups. "Perhaps," replied the blind man, "because so many careless people were satisfied that it was fireproof." "Ah-ha, there you are--the greater the confidence the greater the risk. But only if your self-confidence results in carelessness. Now do you know how this place is secured, Max?" "I am told that they lock the door at night," replied Carrados, with bland malice. "And hide the key under the mat to be ready for the first arrival in the morning," crowed Mr Carlyle, in the same playful spirit. "Dear old chap! Well, let me tell you----" "That force is out of the question. Quite so," admitted his friend. "That simplifies the argument. Let us consider fraud. There again the precautions are so rigid that many people pronounce the forms a nuisance. I confess that I do not. I regard them as a means of protecting my own property and I cheerfully sign my name and give my password, which the manager compares with his record-book before he releases the first lock of my safe. The signature is burned before my eyes in a sort of crucible there, the password is of my own choosing and is written only in a book that no one but the manager ever sees, and my key is the sole one in existence." "No duplicate or master-key?"