Blackmail! by Fred M. White — Read

Lance paused a moment before he investigated further. A feeling of nervousness possessed him--a feeling that he had never suffered from before. He caught himself wondering if Stott had any similar symptoms.

It was wonderfully still in the house to-night, so still that the scratching of a mouse behind a panel somewhere in the hall sounded painfully loud. And Lance stood before the safe as a burglar might have done. It was strange that he should not have thought about the safe before, and stranger still that the same idea had not occurred to Stott. But then Stott was in no condition to think of anything; the drink soddened brain could not grasp all the threads.