Adam Adams swung the door of the safe open once more. As he surmised, the combination could be set to a new series of numbers with ease. He fixed it to correspond with the numbers of his own office safe, then closed the door, gave the knob a twirl, and hurried from the room by the same opening by which he had entered.
"When I first came up I thought somebody was robbing the safe," said Raymond Case, when the pair were at a distance from the house.
"Take out a package of bankbills and put them into your pocket. Oh, I know it must be all right, Mr. Adams. But it looked queer."
"I took them for safe keeping. Look at them for a moment. I'll strike a match behind this clump of trees. Count them over, too. It may be as well to have a witness for this."
Raymond Case took the crisp bills and did as requested.
"Three thousand dollars," he said. "All brand new bills and each for a hundred dollars."
"So they are. That's rather odd; isn't it?"
"Wait. Mr. Case, I am going to trust you even as you have trusted me. I want you to keep this a secret."
"Counterfeit bank bills!" gasped the young man. "And in Mr. Langmore's possession! Taken from his safe! What does it mean?"
"This is--is astounding! You don't suspect that he was in the habit--I mean that he--" Raymond Case did not know how to go on.
"It's too early to form a conclusion. But one thing is certain, the counterfeits were in his private safe, and from all accounts that safe had not been opened since his death. Consequently he must have placed them there."
"I don't believe he dealt in counterfeits," returned the young man bluntly.
"Facts are stubborn things to overcome. Down in the town I learned that Mr. Langmore used to be a comparatively poor man. All his wealth has come to him in the past six years."
"He made his money out of his patents and out of various other schemes."
"All of his wealth has come to him in the past six years," pursued the detective. "I happen to know something about these counterfeits, which the federal authorities have been trying to trace to their source. The first of these bogus one hundred dollar bills appeared about six years ago, at a bank in Brooklyn."
The heart of the young man sank within him, and as he spoke his lips began to quiver.