He waited ten minutes, therefore, before ringing the bell, and presently Mrs. Peters arrived, somewhat out of breath. “If any one calls, say that I’m away,” the masquerader said sharply. “On no account am I to be disturbed by any one—by any one, mind you. If Joseph is about, tell him so, too.” “Very well, sir,” Mrs. Peters answered. “Is that all?” “Yes.” Despite Green Eye’s eagerness to get at the safe, he remembered Prince’s alarming behavior, and narrowly watched the housekeeper’s face. He felt sure she could not deceive him. If she had the slightest suspicion that all was not as it should be, her face and manner would be sure to reveal the fact. “No, she hasn’t tumbled to me,” he assured himself, as Mrs. Peters left the room. “It was not to be supposed that she would, but she must have thought the beast’s actions very peculiar. Thank Heaven, all of Carter’s assistants are away. I’ll have to keep the butler at a distance, too, as much as possible. I don’t believe he’s capable of seeing through the deception, but he’s a man, and he’s been with Carter for a good while. His eyes may be sharper than I think.” He turned the key in the lock hurriedly, took off his coat, and began to roll up his sleeves. “Now, where, does he keep the outfit?” he muttered, his pale, keen eyes darting about the room. With quick steps he crossed to the cabinet and tried that, but, obviously, he did not find there what he sought, for he turned away from it with a snarl of impatience. The desk was the next thing he examined, but it was not until he had picked the lock of one of the hitherto unopened drawers that he found what he sought—a small black bag. When he had opened the latter, his lips curled into an ugly grin. “What a burglar he would have made,” he muttered, as he emptied the contents of the bag carefully on the floor in front of the safe. There were bits of various sizes, ordinary drills and wheel drills, jimmies, glass cutters, skeleton keys, acids—in fact, everything that goes to make up the outfit of the most up-to-date burglar. Green-eye Gordon turned them over caressingly, but it was not for long that he was idle. He knelt before the safe, his eyes roving over it at close range. Soon he smiled with satisfaction. It was scarcely as modern a safe as he would have expected Nick Carter to possess, but that was probably because the last thing in the world the famous detective expected was a burglary in his own house. Among other accomplishments, most of which had brought him into conflict with the law, Ernest Gordon numbered safe-cracking, and, as he knelt before the massive steel door, with its shining nickel fittings, he had no doubt that he would be able to master this one in a comparatively short time. After a brief examination of the lock, to make sure that he could not open the combination by ear, the masquerader picked up the powerful wheel drill, fitted a bit to it, and, pressing the other end against his stomach, set to work.