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“By Jupiter!” he said. “Pretty work! Here are these jokers coming … and just as we were about to gather the fruits of our laborious efforts! Tut, tut, Lupin, keep cool! What’s expected of you? To open a safe, of which you don’t know the secret, in thirty seconds. That’s a mere trifle to lose your head about! Come, all you have to do is to discover the secret! How many letters are there in the word? Four?”

He went on thinking, while talking and listening to the noise outside. He double-locked the door of the outer room and then came back to the safe:

“Four ciphers…. Four letters … four letters…. Who can lend me a hand?… Who can give me just a tiny hint?… Who? Why, Lavernoux, of course! That good Lavernoux, seeing that he took the trouble to indulge in optical telegraphy at the risk of his life…. Lord, what a fool I am!… Why, of course, why, of course, that’s it!… By Jove, this is too exciting!… Lupin, you must count ten and suppress that distracted beating of your heart. If not, it means bad work.”