At that instant the pistol fired and the old man fell, I wheeled about and was in the hall; I sprung the lock after me, and in a second I was in my own room--just as my wife, dazed with fright, had jumped out of bed.

"Come," I cried, "something must have happened." And together we ran into the old man's room.' "'During the excitement which followed I forgot no precaution; I slipped the bolt back into place and removed the string from the button of my own window.

My wife was frantic.

I did not suspect that the old woman had seen me, for I was not in the vault-room an instant after the pistol fired, and before that it was so dark that she could not have recognized me.

If I had thought that she did see me'-- "'What would you have done ?' the reporter asked.
"'I don't know,' Brooks answered, 'but it is not reasonable to suppose that I would have let her go away from home.