Vane watched from his high vantage point on the curtain rod as the two men stepped onto the stone porch.
They wore heavy canvas jackets, thick leather gloves, and heavy work boots coated in dried mud.
The taller man carried a cordless electric rotary drill with a heavy battery pack attached to its base.
"The noise of the delivery truck will drown out the initial drilling," the second man remarked as he set his toolbox down.
Vane did not waste a single second. He slid down the heavy velvet fabric and sprinted toward the music room.
He needed to monitor their movement through the house using his acoustic piano system.
The taller man inserted a hardened steel tension wrench into the front door lock.
As he turned the tool, the flour-clogged tumblers ground against each other with a loud, grating noise.
The man swore softly in frustration and applied double force to the wrench.
The internal lever finally yielded, and the heavy oak door swung inward with a loud click.
Both men stepped across the threshold, their boots crushing the flour layer into the floorboards.
Instantly, the grand piano in the music room let out a deep, vibrating hum that reverberated through the high plaster ceilings of the foyer.
The second man stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes darting toward the dark ceiling. "What was that sound?"
"Just draft pressure in the chimney flues," the taller man muttered, wiping white flour off the toes of his boots.
They moved quickly down the central hallway toward the master study.
Vane ran through the hollow wall cavities parallel to their path, his feet moving over the lath and plaster with practiced speed.
He reached the study ahead of them and scrambled into the recessed space behind the heavy wall safe.
The secret vault combination was recorded inside a leather-bound ledger stored within that safe.
If the thieves breached the safe, they would possess the exact numbers needed to open the main vault door below.
The taller man placed his rotary drill on the mahogany desk and aligned the steel bit with the safe's dial spindle.
He pulled the trigger, and the high-pitched screech of high-speed steel against hardened iron filled the study.
Vane knew that his physical strength could never stop an electric motor, but he understood how the house was wired.
He followed the heavy black extension cord that supplied power from the wall outlet near the baseboard.
The heavy rubber cord was plugged into a brass dual-socket fixture set into the baseboard.
Vane squeezed through the narrow gap between the baseboard moulding and the floorboards.
He positioned his front paws against the thick rubber casing of the electrical plug.
Bracing his hind legs against the floorboards, he pushed with all the muscular power in his hindquarters.
The rubber plug popped out of the brass socket with a sharp spark.
The screech of the electric drill cut off instantly, leaving the room in complete silence save for the ticking mantle clock.
"What happened to the circuit?" the taller man grumbled, staring at the dead tool.
"Check the main fuse panel in the hall," the second man suggested, turning toward the door.
As soon as the second man stepped away, Vane reached out through the baseboard gap and grabbed the loose rubber cord.
He dragged the heavy wire back into the wall cavity before the thieves could see what was moving it.
The second man returned to the wall socket and stared at the empty outlet in utter disbelief.
"The extension cord is gone!" he yelled, backing away from the wall.
"Don't be absurd," the taller man snapped, stepping over to examine the baseboard.
Vane pulled the cord deeper into the dark recess behind the library bookcase, wrapping the thick wire tightly around an iron radiator pipe.
The thieves looked around the quiet room, their faces pale under the dim light.
"This estate is not normal," the second man whispered, clutching his leather gloves nervously.
"Focus on the job," the taller man demanded, though his own hands were visibly shaking as he opened his manual toolbox.
He pulled a heavy steel hand-brace from his kit and fitted a diamond-tipped bit into the chuck.
"We will drill the dial spindle manually," he declared, setting the bit against the metal plate.
Vane observed their progress from his dark sanctuary beneath the radiator.
Manual drilling through hardened steel would take them at least an hour of continuous physical labor.
That delay gave Vane all the time he needed to prepare his next trap in the vault corridor below.