‘And if you go on trying to indulge your curiosity instead of announcing me, I’ll make sure you get the blame.’
The frightened valet asked Sherlock Holmes to wait in the sitting room and went off.
The bank director appeared a moment later. He’d been entertaining all night and was fully dressed. He was middle-aged, sturdily built. His hair was an iron grey and he wore a Vandyke. He looked thoroughly perplexed. Probably warned by the valet, he didn’t seem bothered to see a barefoot vagrant.
‘What’s the matter?’ he asked anxiously.
‘Does anyone else know I am here to see you?’ asked Sherlock Holmes.
‘No, nobody. This room is only for official visitors. But why are you here?’
‘Your bank is under threat. I am asking you to telephone and order two armed men to be sent there. You have to get hold of the cashier or whoever holds the keys to the strongroom and follow me. I’ll explain along the way.’
The director had his wits about him. He didn’t ask further questions, but picked up the telephone. Orders were swiftly given. The valet ordered a horse and carriage.
The director and Sherlock Holmes set off for the main entrance of the Commercial Centre of the fair. This entrance was shut to the public, because the office of the provincial governor, the offices of the State Bank and other government departments were on the top floor.
‘Did you take a revolver?’ asked Sherlock Holmes as the coach moved off.
‘Yes,’ said the director, ‘but you did promise to explain.’
‘With pleasure,’ answered Sherlock Holmes. ‘The matter is very simple. A temporary branch of the State Bank is opened for the fair and very large sums of money are kept in anticipation of the fair.’
‘Indeed,’ said the director.
‘Well, a couple of men decided to do something about it. Just under the floor of your premises there are two shops. A manu-facturer and Alferakki, ex-Terehoff.’
‘Indeed that is so,’ confirmed the director.
‘No doubt you have heard of the mysterious goings-on at Terehoff’s.’
‘Of course.’
‘It’s like this, then,’ said Sherlock Holmes. ‘Alferakki and his colleague needed that shop, because it is right under your storeroom and safe. I determined that as soon as I paid a visit to you. By means of trickery, they managed to get rid of Terehoff and to take his place. They’ve already knocked a hole just under the safe between their ceiling and your floor. According to my calculations, the break-in should take place today.’
‘Oh, my God!’ said the director.
‘That’s why our appearance at the bank must be carried out as quietly as possible,’ added Holmes.
The coach, by this time, had arrived near enough to the main entrance to the Commercial Centre. Sherlock Holmes ordered the coachman not to pull up, but to go a little further. They got off quietly and opened the door. Inside, they went up the stairs to the security guards. ‘There’s a major crime being planned here,’ the director addressed the head of security. ‘To prevent it, we need absolute quiet. One of you has to let me into the storeroom. As soon as you hear a whistle, bring the sentries with you. We’ll wait inside. The door must be shut but not locked.’
‘Yes, sir,’ bowed the officer.
The cashier, three policemen and Watson arrived, all summoned by telephone. ‘All our own people,’ said Holmes. ‘Everyone, take your shoes off. We must not be heard.’
The whole party entered the bank. The door to the storeroom was unlocked, the seal taken off the strongbox containing the money. The director was made to sign a receipt.
Holmes switched on the light. They were inside a small storeroom. The walls were of thick stone. Metal leaf was nailed down to cover the floor. In the middle of the room, a large metal trunk was fixed to the floor. It had a flap with a metal grill nailed over it.
Sherlock Holmes shook his head. ‘They’ll have to work at getting to the money.’ He placed everyone in position. He and Watson hid behind the strongbox. The others were told to wait outside. ‘If you hear me whistle,’ he whispered, ‘rush inside and if you don’t see me, go for the strongbox.’ By way of explanation he added, ‘It is likely, and more than likely, that the thieves have sawed an aperture into the storeroom from below the strong box, and nobody would see it from any angle.’
‘Indeed,’ said the director, looking at the proceedings with great interest, and awe at Holmes’s part.
Holmes looked around, ‘Well, sirs, take your places and not a sound. The slightest noise, a cough, a movement of the hand or leg, and all is lost.’
Everyone did as they were told. Holmes asked the director to unlock the strongbox. The director then left. Holmes and Watson were left alone in the strongroom.
IX
Left alone with Watson, Holmes opened the strongbox. It was filled with gold and bank notes. They dropped down behind it and switched off the lights.
Everything was still. Placing their revolvers beside them, they lay down silently on the floor. Time dragged on leaden feet. There wasn’t a sound from down below to give away the presence of the thieves. Nearly an hour passed.
But then, at last, somewhere in the distance, from under the floorboards, a slight rustle came through. At first it didn’t come through very clearly, but after a while, more and more. At last a light creak came through, as if someone had stepped on the precarious step of a ladder. This sound came not so much from under the trunk laden with money, but as if from a corner of the storeroom. Then the sounds ceased for a few moments.
Sherlock Holmes bent right up to Watson’s ear and whispered very softly, ‘There is a passageway through the wall, and then it goes between the floor and the ceiling.’ He was silent again, and pressed his ear to the metal flooring to pick up the slightest sound.
Someone moved softly under the floor, and from under the trunk laden with money, a tool scraped. Then, another. Under the trunk, two people were working purposefully.
Sherlock Holmes crawled towards the trunk and placed his palm over the bank notes to feel any movement beneath them.
Below them, two people were filing away uninterruptedly. Approximately another hour went by. It was very likely that the files were constantly oiled. That’s why the sounds were so weak. And that’s why the watchman outside could hear nothing.
But now all was still again. It was still for a couple of minutes, but then there was a rustle under the floor, as if mice were scurrying about. And then, all of a sudden, Sherlock Holmes felt the money under his palm shake and begin to go down. He realised at once what was happening.
He touched Watson gently on the shoulder, took his hand and shoved it into the trunk. ‘The moment I pull you by the sleeve, jump right into the trunk,’ whispered Holmes.
He rose quietly to his feet, bent over the trunk, using his palm to monitor its descent together with the money. The very moment that the upper layer of money was down to the level of the surrounding floor, Holmes tugged at Watson’s sleeve and with one quick movement switched on the light. Both leaped into the trunk.
A sharp whistle sounded the alarm.
That very moment, the bottom of the trunk, which the thieves were lowering with their hands, collapsed under the weight of Holmes and Watson. The thieves were caught by surprise from the weight of the two bodies. Unable to hold the metal floor on which the trunk had stood, they let go and fell in different directions.
All this took two or three seconds. Now events followed one upon another with the speed of lightning.
The drop was not far. It was a mere three feet or so between the floor of the upper storey and the ceiling below. It was only the suddenness which stunned thieves and detectives, and then only slightly. A moment, and both sides had recovered so that a life-and-death struggle began in that narrow space.
