'You don't,' said Hugo proudly; 'it never needs it.'
Mr. Galpin stood corrected.
'If there's anything in my line I can do for you at any time, sir,' said
he.
Hugo pondered.
Mr. Galpin put the watch in his waistcoat-pocket, and, tearing the
hundred-pound note in two halves, placed one half in the left breast
pocket of his coat, and the other half in the right breast pocket of his
coat.
'Could you have opened that vault,' Hugo asked, 'if both keys had been
lost?'
'No, sir, I could not. It's such people as you who are ruining my
profession, sir.'
'You think the vault is impregnable?'
'Yes, sir,' said Mr. Galpin. 'I should say its name was just about as
near being Gibraltar as makes no matter.'
'I was only wondering,' Hugo mused aloud, 'only wondering.... Ah, well,
I won't trouble you with my fancies.'
'As you wish, sir. Good-bye.'
'Good-bye, Mr. Galpin. And thank you!'
'Thank _you_, sir,' said Mr. Galpin, and disappeared.
'Simon,' Hugo ordered immediately afterwards, handing Simon the token,
'run down and get me the best gold watch in the place.'
Throughout the morning Hugo's thoughts were far away. Most frequently
they were in Belgium, but now and then they paid a strange
incomprehensible visit with Ravengar to the vault.
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