CHAPTER XXII.
THE HEAVY WALLET All that remained of the once stately, if restricted, premises of Messrs.
Dashwood and Solomon was a gaunt-looking front wall, blackened by the fire.

Tarling interviewed the Chief of the Fire Brigade.
"It'll be days before we can get inside," said that worthy, "and I very much doubt if there's anything left intact.

The whole of the building has been burnt out--you can see for yourself the roof has gone in--and there's very little chance of recovering anything of an inflammable nature unless it happens to be in a safe." Tarling caught sight of the brusque Sir Felix Solomon gazing, without any visible evidence of distress, upon the wreckage of his office.
"We are covered by insurance," said Sir Felix philosophically, "and there is nothing of any great importance, except, of course, those documents and books from Lyne's Store." "They weren't in the fire-proof vault ?" asked Tarling, and Sir Felix shook his head.
"No," he said, "they were in a strong-room; and curiously enough, it was in that strong room where the fire originated.

The room itself was not fire-proof, and it would have been precious little use if it had been, as the fire started inside.

The first news we received was when a clerk, going down to the basement, saw flames leaping out between the steel bars which constitute the door of No.