The
patrol rushed to the main door. The three keys had clearly been turned
while the door was opened, and the shot bolts prevented the door from
closing. This explained why the door was ajar, but it did not explain
the absence of the doorkeeper, who had apparently followed in the
footsteps of his chief, Mr. Brown.
'The time-lock! Someone must have set it!' cried the patrol to Shawn,
and the two hastened to the other end of the main corridor, where the
dial of the machine glistened under an electric lamp.
And all the sub-guardians stirred and grumbled in their beautiful bright
cages like wrathful lions. No such scene had ever been known in that
Safe Deposit or any other safe deposit before.
The patrol was right. The dial of the time-lock showed that it had been
set against every lock, great and small, in the Safe Deposit, until nine
a.m. the next day.
'It's all up!' the patrol said solemnly.
'Do you mean to say nothing can be done to open that vault till nine
to-morrow?' Simon demanded in despair.
'Nothing. The blooming Czar couldn't manage it with all his Cossacks!
No, nor Bobs either! This is a Safe Deposit, this is, and if Mr. Hugo is
in that vault, it's Mr. Hugo as knows it's a Safe Deposit by now.'
A brief silence ensued, and then Simon said:
'We must telephone to the police.
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