"I had no doubt as to the honesty of my servants, who alone knew its position; but they did not know the manner in which it was protected. It is situated under my study, which is at the back of this room. The safe is an extremely strong one, of alternate sheets of steel and iron, and was made specially for me. It opens at the top, and you get at it by taking up the carpet in the study and lifting a trap-door. The vault in which the safe stands is two feet each way wider than the safe, and as this stands in the centre, there is a foot of vacant space on each side of it. Round the upper part of the safe there is a sliding apparatus by which a stout steel case, like a bottomless box, can be drawn up to the level of the trap-door. This, however, is only done when the safe is to be opened. "In the next place, I have a communication from what I may call the strong-room both with the pipe which brings water for the garden and with a large cistern upstairs. Thus, the strong-room is kept filled with water, and the safe is therefore surrounded above as well as on its four sides with water. When I want to open the safe, I go into the study by myself, lift the heavy trap-door, which is cased with an inch of steel, but is easily moved by means of a counter-poise, and then, with the aid of a lever in a secret closet, push up this box until it is level with the floor. I may say that the safe is three inches wider each way than the trap-door. The door of the safe itself being one inch narrower each way than the trap-door, opens through it. "Having got this box, which is perfectly water-tight, into its place, I work another handle in a secret cupboard and pump out the water in the frame above the safe, and then open the door of the safe, and it is now ready for the men to come in and store the gold away. When they have left I close the door of the safe, lower the frame to its place, and the safe is at once covered with a foot of water. Thus, you see, burglars would have a succession of difficulties. They would, in the first place, be obliged to cut through the steel of the trap-door, then they would find, to their surprise, water immediately underneath them, and until this was removed it would be impossible for them to blow in the door of the safe. They would naturally try to bucket it out, but as it would come in again as fast as they did so, they would gain nothing by it. They might try to blow in the safe with waterproof cartridges, but I doubt whether they would succeed.