had considered that as an alternative to abducting a safe-cracking gang, but it seems the combination remains a secret.”
“A gang now, are we? We’ve gone up in the world.”
“Criminals are criminals, Miss McDonnell,” he said, apparently caring not a whit if he offended me. “But desperate times call for desperate measures.”
“And so you must work with thieves.” I’ll admit, there was a certain satisfaction in pointing this out to him.
“Alas,” he said, “His Majesty’s government does not have a great deal of safecrackers at its disposal.”
“I suppose not,” I conceded. “Not people of our caliber at any rate.”
He tipped his head in mock acknowledgment.
“It would help, though, if I knew in advance what sort of safe it was,” I said.
“I’ll see if that can be arranged.”
Another thought occurred to me. “Will I be going into that house alone?”
“I will accompany you.”
Inwardly, I sighed. Of course, he would.
I tried to imagine what it would be like creeping into a house with Major Ramsey instead of Uncle Mick. Somehow, I didn’t think the major would be much good at creeping. He seemed to me the sort of man who always went striding into rooms, shoulders back, head held high. Was he even capable of stealth?
I assessed him. I supposed that he might be, if he tried. I thought he would probably be decent at most things he set his mind to. His type usually was.
“Where is the house?” I asked.
“You needn’t worry about that.”
“We’re used to investigating houses ahead of time, finding the best ways to get in.”
“I can appreciate that, but we’re going to employ methods a bit different from yours.”
“So I’ve noticed,” I agreed tartly. “My criminal gang would never think of kidnapping anyone.”
He ignored me. “Is there anything you need to get the job done?”
“Just some scratch paper, to work out the combination.”
“Why don’t you tell me about the process.”
I hadn’t expected him to ask this, but I supposed he wanted to know if I was as capable as I claimed to be. Well, I could at least set his mind to rest on that score.
“You understand how safes work, I assume?” I wasn’t being facetious. I genuinely didn’t know how much he might understand about how the process worked. The average person had very little idea what went on inside that little mechanism.
“I understand the basics,” he said. “But perhaps you had better give me a brief tutorial.”
I studied him for just a moment to see if it was he who was being facetious, but he seemed to be in earnest. I nodded.
I thought for just a moment about the best way to go about explaining it. Uncle Mick had taught me at such a young age that I didn’t exactly remember the lessons. It just felt like something I had always known and, quite naturally, had not had much opportunity to share with others.
“This is quite simplified, but you’ll get the idea,” I began. “Inside the safe, there’s something called the drive cam, which is connected to the exterior dial with a spindle and turns with it. The cam has a notch in it called the gate. The bolting mechanism of the safe is attached to a lever. When the lever’s nose drops into the gate, the rotation of the cam pulls the lever and retracts the bolt, and the safe will open.”
He nodded. So far, so good.
“The security feature comes in with something called the wheel pack, a set of wheels between the door and the cam. Each number in the safe’s combination corresponds to one of the wheels, so the number of wheels determines how many numbers are in the combination. Obviously, the fewer wheels, the easier things are.”
“Obviously.”
“The bolt’s lever has a little bar, perpendicular to the nose, called a fence. Each wheel has its own notch, and unless the wheels are lined up in the correct configuration, the fence hits the wheels and stops the nose from dropping into the gate so that it can’t be engaged. Are you following me?”
“Yes.”
“Now we go back to the drive cam. As it rotates with the turn of the dial, there is something called a pin that will catch on a tab on the nearest wheel called the fly, engaging the wheel and making it turn with the cam. After another rotation, a pin on that wheel will catch the fly on the next wheel, picking it up, too. That is, causing it to join in the rotation. This is done until the wheel farthest from