Seven and one-half tons of finely wrought and polished tool-steel alloy swung on delicately balanced hinges, coming to rest with the metal-to-metal sound of machined surfaces sliding into a perfect fit with its precision-matched receptacle. Its piston-fit made a pressure on our eardrums. Then the automatic switches took over and motors whirred in solid muffled harmony as the massive bars slid out of their nests into the polished slots. The ponderous operation that sealed the two of us off from the outside world behind a barrier of drill-proof and burglar-proof and blast-proof solidity concluded not with the mechanical fanfare it deserved, but with a gentle little _click_ that was as final as the Word of God. "--do that!" gasped Florence Wood, weakly finishing her admonition. She stared at me. The knowledge that this bank vault door was equipped with a time-lock that would not permit it to be opened except in the interval between nine-fifteen and nine-thirty in the morning of any working weekday ceased to be mere information and became vitally important to Florence Wood. So did the secondary knowledge that the bank vault was also contrived in available volume to limit the breathable air. There was not enough to support the average human adult overnight until opening time tomorrow morning. Now there were two of them entombed in it--_and she was one of them_! "We'll die!" she screamed. "Trust me, Florence?" She looked dubious. She was not at all willing to regard anyone as competent who was so foolish as to lock himself into a bank vault--and her with him. Florence was still struggling through her sea of mixed thoughts when the telephone rang. It was Chief Weston and he bellowed almost loud enough to hear through the yards of concrete and steel that separated us. "Schnell--what in the bloody hell have you done?" "I've shut the vault," I said. "You'll die!" "I doubt it." "How do you propose to get out?" he demanded with heavy sarcasm. "Just ask Edward Hazlett Wood--the Psi-man in our midst." "Schnell, if you get out of there alive, I'm going to ask for your resig--" "If I get out of here alive, you'll need every faculty I have to keep our Psi-man jugged for good." "You and your extra-sensory--" "Chief, get it through your thick skull that I am so convinced I'm right that I am betting my life on it!" "And can you tell me why he is going to give himself away to rescue you?" "Because I have his daughter right here beside me." "Schnell--" "Stop yacking, Chief. Call me when Wood arrives. I have an emotional problem on my hands down here." "How do you know Wood's coming?" "He's been following my every move by telepathy," I said. "And he's been trying to block me all the way. Oh, he knows all right." * * * * *