Watching his opportunity, Wentworth slipped unnoticed into the private office, closed the door softly behind him, and sank comfortably into McNabb’s desk chair.

A gong sounded, and was repeated, dimly, upon the floors above.  Wentworth could hear the tramp of feet in the aisles as the clerks poured from the building through a door that gave on to a side street.  In a few minutes the rush was over, and then they came scatteringly, singly, and by twos and threes.  He could hear the opening of the door, and the click of the lock as it closed behind them.  The footsteps ceased.  He drew his watch and waited.  Noises from the street reached him, sounding far off and muffled, but the store was silent as a tomb.  Twelve minutes ticked away.  A footstep sounded.  Wentworth could trace it descending the stairs, and walking the length of an aisle.  Followed the sound of the opening door, and the click of the latch.  Some belated department head, he thought.  Possibly Hedin, himself—­and he grinned at the thought.

In the silence of the great building Wentworth suddenly realized that he was nervous.  It was all well enough to plan a thing, but the carrying out of the plan was quite another matter.  He took a silent turn or two the length of the office, his footsteps making no sound upon the soft carpet.  He waited twenty minutes and, hearing no sound, closed his watch and dabbed at his forehead with the handkerchief which he drew from his sleeve.  Turning the knob, he stepped out upon the uncarpeted floor.  The sound of his footsteps upon the hardwood seemed to reverberate through the whole building.  He walked a few steps on tiptoe, and then decided that in case anyone should see him, the tiptoeing would look furtive.  So he walked to the foot of the stairway, his footsteps sounding in his ears like the ring of a hammer on an anvil.  As he ascended the stairs he called out, “Hey, isn’t there any one here?  I am locked in, and can’t get out!  Hello!  Someone show me the way out!”

Swiftly he ascended to the third floor and crossed to the fur case.  Silently he slid back the door and lifted the baum marten coat from its place, and stepping to a counter upon which was fixed a huge roll of wrapping paper, he proceeded to make the coat into a package.  This done, he hastened toward the stairway with the package under his arm.  Down the stairs he flew, taking them two and three at a time, down the next flight, and across the floor, until he brought up panting at the door with the spring lock by which the employees had left the building.

Thought of material gain had not until this point entered into the scheme.  He had merely plotted the undoing of a rival, but at the sudden realization of his status in the eyes of the world, a new thought struck him.  “If I can get away with it—­why not?  A Russian sable!  Why, it’s worth thousands!”