Mr. Briggs, doubtless with an eye to business, began to ask questions about our vault. My general knowledge of such affairs enabled me to answer him satisfactorily. I told him that it was built of brick, lined with stone, and that it had Lillie doors. He said that while vaults of that kind were possibly fireproof, they were far from being safe from burglars. He claimed that Lillie’s work was a back number, and showed me a Lillie safe that had been robbed by drilling. “Let us put you in a steel-lined vault, and some of our latest make of chilled steel doors,” suggested Mr. Briggs; “then you will have a vault that you can feel is really burglar-proof.”
I thought of our unsuccessful attempt on the Brockport Bank and felt that Mr. Briggs had some justification for his confidence. And I could not but speculate as to whether his confidence would remain unshaken after the ultimate ending of the scheme in behalf of which I was now visiting him. I venture to say that it did not.
Parrying as best I could Mr. Briggs’s proposition,--for I did not know just the dimensions of that Scranton vault, and really did not wish it lined just then,--and it not being a vault, but a lock, that I was after, I asked to be shown their different styles of locks. There was none just exactly like that on the Ocean Bank vault; but there was one which varied only slightly. I asked Mr. Briggs if he could not make certain changes in it. He said he could, but that the lock would not then be so good, as the things I wished altered were improvements on their old style of lock. I insisted, however, upon the changes; and he said that it would take about two days to make them. I told him to go ahead and make the changes, and I would take the lock. He offered to send it by express to Scranton, but I replied that my business in Buffalo would be finished by the time the lock was ready, and that I would stop for it on my way home.
I have often wondered since that Briggs did not become suspicious at my display of knowledge of locks, and my desire for a special pattern, especially as that pattern was palpably not as good as the one he was asked to alter. Doubtless he did wonder, but he probably put it down to the contrariness of a man who, having set his mind on one thing, cannot be turned therefrom by the most convincing arguments. For how could he surmise the purpose to which that lock was intended to be put?