The Watch Dog A Story of ToDay Author:Arthur Hornblow General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1915 Original Publisher: G.W. Dillingham Company Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where... more » you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER VII THIS way, Baron. Look out for the steps." The banker went ahead, down richly carpeted stairs, to the basement twenty feet below, where an elaborate system of steel vaults, extending out under the street, had been built in the solid ground. First, they found themselves in a squared-off space entirely surrounded by heavy steel bars reaching to the steel ceiling overhead. This outer room, luxuriously furnished with chairs, desks, oriental rugs and ornamental plants, was the reception office where customers wishing to visit their deposit boxes were closely scrutinized by keen-eyed clerks before being permitted to enter the enclosure. At the sight of Mr. Chalmers, the steel gate immediately swung open and almost as quickly closed again behind them with an ominous snap. "You see," said the president, turning to his prospective son-in-law with a smile, "there wouldn't be much chance of a thief getting away, even if he succeeded in forcing his way into the vault." The Baron made no answer, his eyes rivetted on the great steel vault, the massive open doors of which now faced them. Reports certainly had not exaggerated the strength of the place. No fire, earthquake or other convulsion of nature could work ruin and destruction here. The large strong room, constructed of solid steel, reinforced by concrete many feet thick, with massive doors weighing several tons, and protected by clock-work locks, electrical alarm bells, high-pressure scalding steam valves, and every other device modern ingenuity can invent, defied both the ravages of time and the despe...« less