Moreover, his sister, seated in her room in a chair so placed as to command a view of the doorway opposite, and looking more effaced than ever from the weary vigil which her heartless brother had imposed upon her during his absence, advised him of the customary isolation and depression which distinguished this barren household. Within, Raikes began to make himself secure for the night. He double-locked the door, placed the heavy bar in the iron shoulders, over which he inserted a stout iron pin. A brief investigation convinced him that it was out of the question to open the shutters from without. Satisfied upon these points, Raikes proceeded to the radiator, which for a trembling space of apprehension he forbore to open. However, since it was certainty he wanted, the valves shortly swung toward him, the inner door responded to the sesame of his touch, and the recess containing the tenets of his religion was exposed to view. With trembling hands, which indicated the latent fear which unnerved him, and eyes aching with anxiety, the wretched man examined bag after bag of his precious coin with the solicitude one sees manifested by parents whose children are rendered doubly dear by the taking away of one of their number. "Ah!" With a sigh, the relief of which almost concluded in physical collapse, Raikes was able to assure himself that his rapid inventory revealed no further loss. Replacing his treasure with the indisposition he usually manifested to leave the vicinity of his hoard, the miser closed the various compartments with more than his accustomed certitude and began to prepare to respond to the lassitude of sleep which, for some unaccountable reason, was unusually insistent. With the easy partition of attire already noted, Raikes presently found himself ready to tuck himself away for the night, which he did after rolling his bedstead directly in front of the false radiator. This unusual measure of precaution consummated, Raikes, with the first sense of security he had felt for the last twenty-four hours, presently succumbed to a sleep remarkable for its quick approach and its subsequent soundness. Until early dawn, with the relaxation which is commonly the reward of innocence, Raikes slept away in unconscious travesty. And when at last he opened his eyes he was as alertly awake as he had been profoundly asleep. With a promptness due to his retiring forebodings, his habitual unrest and suspicion returned to him. He was as vitally alive to the disturbing conditions of the day before as if they had been the subjects of an all-night meditation. But the confidence of his bolts and bars, the recollection of his unusual measures of safety, reassured him somewhat. It was, therefore, with a degree of composure he approached the door and satisfied himself that the bar and the locks had been undisturbed.