Evening star., 1904-07-16

| greeted the hoasekeeper By fiarns, sought
the favorite apartment Of the late O'Keefe.
and all Without the trembling Of an eyslld.
! Preparation was--tha secret OF all this.
Constitutional Smith always prepared his
| Jobs and prepared them well but he had
never prepared any lob as he had this one. >
There was only TEs. one thing about It that hs
compelled him to employ the two young
| toughs, He had occasion to regret II later
| to much greater degree. But 1t had been
necessary ssaG He had figured It i, all out BE- BE-
tracing too much attention to himself. 1t
was impossible to swing the thing properly
without help. He would pay them well.
rest. Constitutional Smith was lucky, to
| him fortune had ever been gentle mis-
| tress.
He lit the argand burner in the den. It
| had a green shade and cast q pleasant
| light upon the room. On the desk there
| was a box of cigars. Constitutional Smith
| reached for this box. selected cigar. lit
| it and thrust 1t between his teeth. Then
| he threw himself into the easiest chair IN
the room. stretched out his legs and sighed.
| He sighed with relief. For the first time
| in many weeks-months even-he felt at
| ease. He was safe. and he was glad 10
know 1t.
He indulged In reverie for an hour or
| more. Finally he reused himself and be-
| gan to think in earnest He must arrange
for the future. That was important. lie
cast his eye about the room. =.
In the wall opposite, 1mbedoed, as !,
were in the plaster, there was set smali
safe Of artistic design. By its looks,
though small. it was well made and strong
And it was burglar proof, of course.
Naturally" soliloquized Constitutional
to hipself. II never saw safe that was
burghrproof.".
He rose leisurely and crossed the room
STOPPING, he tried to turn the handle. II
| resisted all his efforts.
II naturally thought" commented Con-
stitutional Smith, that he might have left
1t OPEN"
He ceased his efforts al the handle.s and
seating himself upon the floor placed his
ear close to the combination and started
to revolve it carefully and slowly. He was
listening for the clink-clink of the tumblers
within. But he did not hear them.
ITS one Of the new kind" he said to
himself. o! thought as much
He left the safe and approached the desk
The desk OPEN He started in to make
a systematic search through it. He found
nothing of value, not even book contain
ing blank checks. Hastily he ransacked
the whole room. There was nothing of in
tereSt to him. Evidently everything of
value was fnclosed within the safe
He touched button. After a short pause
the housekeeper appeared.
Mrs Parslow," said Constitutional
Smith, muff1ing his voice slightly while in
the act of lighting a fresh cigar, Il wish
you'd send me pitcher of ice water and
couple of sandwiches, will your
Fifteen minutes later she brought them.
They constituted the regular midnight
lunch of Ellington O'Keefe.
And by the way, Mrs. Parslow," went
on Smith, as she turned to leave the room
If you hear anything queer in here tonight
don't let it disturb you. You'll know it's
me-"
AN right, sir" said Mrs Parslow.
I'm going to try new invention a fell
lows trying to stick me on-thats all. 1
want to test the thing myself, you see?"
Mrs: Parslow evidently saw, for she
bowed once more and left him alone
On small table was a decanter of sherry.
He poured out liberal installment of this
ana drank 1t slowly as he ate his lunch.
Constitutional Smith had eaten few lunches
with so much relish he ate this one.
He finished his lunch, finished his cigar,
and then sat in silence until the house was
quiet. Then he rose stealthily left the
small room, crossed in the dark to a bed
room-that of Ellington OKeefe-and with
out striking a match turning up the
hght, he pulled from the bed the blankets
which rested upon it. Bearing these across
his arm he retraced his sters and once more
entered the little smoking room. Then he
shut and locked the door
with the remaining ice water he slightly
softened piece of thin soap which he car
ried with him, and with the soap carefully
| filled up all the crevices in the little safe.
Once he had done this. he produced a sml IL
drill and drilled "a hole into the plates in
front that constituted the door. This took
some time, but made little noise. Later he
adjusted small affair, which resembled a
bicycle tire aim pump, to the small drilled
hole In remarkably short time he had
exhausted most of the air within. While
: the pump still held to the iron door by force
of the suction and while the MOST soap
was slowly disappearing within the cracks
and creviceS by virtue of the same force.
he rapidly attached to the tube of the pump
a small cylinder, turned little valve and
the thing was done. There was a rush of
air and rush of something with 1t that
was sucked into the safe.
"That'H be just enough I reckon" said
Constitutional Smith, Just enough and not
too much. l don't want to bust the thing,
for I'll want to use it later
Removing the pump and the small cylin-
der, he thrust into the hole two copper
wires connected at the ends by a fine plati-
mum filament. These in turn it was his
purpose to connect with a pocket battery.
The current passing through the platinum
finds so much resistance that it heats the
platinum to a bright red glow He Gid
not yet connect them. Having thrust them
into the hole. he seized the blankets which
he had brought in from the bed. folded
| them into several thicknesses and pressed
them tightly against the little safe, hold
| ing them there by the weight of his own
| body. This might seem risky, but in reality
| it was not. Constitutional Smith knew
| almost to ounce the amount of force
! necessary to break open the safe, and he
| had placed just sufficient powder in it to
| be effective and no more.
With his back to the safe, leaning heav-
| lily against the blankets, he connected one
copper wire to a pocket battery that rested
| on the floor. Having done this, he hastily
| made the connection with the other wire
| and braced himself against the door
! There was a dull thud, and the house
| shook almost imperceptibly. There was
| little noise. Smith had not been
| moved more than inch by the explo-
| sion, and he had not been injured in the
| least.
He removed the blankets and gazed upon
| his work. 1t exceeded his widest expecta-
| tions. The hinges to the safe were intact
| and the explosion had merely broken off
| the bolts. They had snapped squarely. and
| there was absolutely no evidence of the
| explosion. He swung open the door and
breafhed a sigh of satisfaction Nothing
| had been injured, for the contents were
protected by an inside door that had suf-
| fered slightly from the force of the eXplo-
| sion, and this door had kept the contents
| intact This door was fastened with a
| Yale lock, which had not been broken.
| 1t was the work of a few moments to
| pick that lock. Having done it, Smith
| carefully closed both doors, rose, blankets
| in hand and threw open the door of the
den He stood for moment in the hall,
! listening intently for any sound but there
| was none; he had not been heard. He
| tossed the blankets onto the bed from
| whence he had taken them, once more re-
| turned to the den. locked the door and
then sat down before the safe