Sigmund Shaw: A Steampunk Adventure by Mark C. King Read Free Book Online Page A

buckles, he lifted the main flap and pulled out two rectangle metal boxes – each about the size of a book – four metal rods and a horn shaped object. Carefully aligning the two rectangle boxes, he snapped them together forming a single larger box. On the bottom of this Sigmund placed the metal rods into each of its corners – like legs to a table. On the top of the box, he firmly placed the tapered end of the horn-like object (similar to the large flower-shaped speaker of a Victrola). On one side of the box it had what looked like a three finger metal hand. Adjusting the leg height so that the hand was lined up directly with the numbered dial on the safe door, Sigmund moved the contraption forward until the horn was directly against the door to the safe. With everything in place, Sigmund produced a winding key out of his pocket, inserted it into a hole on the side of the box, and gave it 5 complete turns. With a quiet whirring noise, the box came to life. Its hand opened and extended forward until it was on the dial, and then with a click, it closed. Now, with a steady movement, it turned the dial slowly.
     
    With his device running, Sigmund checked the door to the office. Peering out, he saw no one, but expected that the front desk clerk would be back soon – for he really had no chance of catching little Timothy, who knew the streets, alleys, and hideaways like back of his dirty little hand. Sigmund hoped to be gone by that time. Returning to his device he knew it should be close to being finished. He thought back to the design of his clock-work safe cracker, simple – as the best designs usually were – but extremely effective. Getting the device to respond to the click of the correct tumbler was his hardest problem. But once overcome, the device was straightforward – once ‘hearing’ the tell-tale sound of one of the correct tumblers with its horn, it would drop a gear to ‘remember’ that location and then proceed until it had all the correct numbers. Once finished, it would then engage the metal claw to clear the dial and do a final combination of turns to the ‘remembered’ positions until the safe was unlocked. Sigmund could have done this by ear, with a stethoscope, but it was a much longer exercise – as he had learned by past experience – and didn’t allow him the freedom to watch his back and move around if necessary.
     
    At last, the device stopped. With a little nervousness – Sigmund always feared that it wouldn’t work, that it was too easy – he turned the handle to the safe and it opened. With a self-satisfied smile, he looked in the safe and surveyed its contents. There was a little cash, some loose jewelry, papers, the typical things found in a hotel safe but those were not the goal of Sigmund’s tonight. Looking under some papers, he found the item he was looking for – a wooden box identical to the one described by his passenger. The box was about the size of a book but its hinge was at the top, not the side. On the front, where the lid met flushly with the bottom, was a locking mechanism. There would be time later to open it and collect the spoils, so Sigmund placed the box into his bag, disassembled his safe cracking machine, placed its components in his bag, closed the safe, and finally put the ‘shell’ back in its place.
     
    Careful to turn off the light and lock the door to the room, he put the key back in its proper spot. Walking around the desk and into the lobby proper, he let out a long breath and headed for the door. But before he went very far, a red faced, perspiration covered person – the front desk clerk – entered the lobby. He looked but there was no way that Sigmund could avoid him. The front desk man – ‘Frederick’ Sigmund read on his name plate – tried to arrange his clothes and compose himself and said, “My apologies, sir, for not being at my desk. I had… I had just chased a would-be thief trying to get at the hotel guests.”
     
    “My