“It’s too much for me,” he said, at last.  “The only way I can find that drawer, I’m afraid, is with an axe.  But I don’t want to smash the thing to pieces—­”

“I should say not!  It would be like smashing the Venus de Milo.”

“Hardly so bad as that.  But we won’t smash it yet awhile.  I’m going to look up the subject of secret drawers—­perhaps I’ll stumble upon something that will help me.”

“And then, of course,” I said, disconsolately, “it is quite possible that there isn’t any such drawer at all.”

But Godfrey shook his head decidedly.

“I don’t agree with you there, Lester.  I’ll wager that fellow who was looking in at us could find it in a minute.”

“He seemed mighty frightened lest you should.”

“He had reason to be,” Godfrey rejoined grimly.  “I’ll have another try at it to-morrow.  One thing we’ve got to take care of, and that is that our friend of the burning eyes doesn’t get a chance at it first.”

“Those shutters are pretty strong,” I pointed out.  “And Parks is no fool.”

“Yes,” agreed Godfrey, “the shutters are pretty strong—­they might keep him out for ten minutes—­scarcely longer than that.  As for Parks, he wouldn’t last ten seconds.  You don’t seem to understand the extraordinary character of this fellow.”

“During your period of exaltation last night,” I reminded him, “you referred to him as the greatest criminal of modern times.”

“Well,” smiled Godfrey, “perhaps that was a little exaggerated.  Suppose we say one of the greatest—­great enough, surely, to walk all around us, if we aren’t on guard.  I think I would better drop a word to Simmonds and get him to send down a couple of men to watch the house.  With them outside, and Parks on the inside, it ought to be fairly safe.”

“I should think so!” I said.  “One would imagine you were getting ready to repel an army.  Who is this fellow, anyway, Godfrey?  You seem to be half afraid of him!”

“I’m wholly afraid of him, if he’s who I think he is—­but it’s a mere guess as yet, Lester.  Wait a day or two.  I’ll call up Simmonds.”

He went to the ’phone, while I sat down again and looked at the cabinet in a kind of stupefaction.  What was the intrigue, of which it seemed to be the centre?  Who was this man, that Godfrey should consider him so formidable?  Why should he have chosen Philip Vantine for a victim?

Godfrey came back while I was still groping blindly amid this maze of mystery.

“It’s all right,” he said.  “Simmonds is sending two of his best men to watch the house.”  He stood for a moment gazing down at the cabinet.  “I’m coming back to-morrow to have another try at it,” he added.  “I have left the gauntlet there on the chair, so if you feel like having a try yourself, Lester....”

“Heaven forbid!” I protested.  “But perhaps I would better tell Parks to let you in.  I hope I won’t find you a corpse here, Godfrey!”