cademic victory. Unless there stood
in the room where the instrument ticked a sufficiently strong force of
his friends to wage a successful battle, any sound from his lips would
mean only death for them and himself--without material advantage to his
cause.

Twice during his long inactivity the raucous sound of a telephone bell
jangled and he heard a voice replying to some inquiry, "No, he hain't
been here." The question so answered, he guessed, had come from Brent
seeking to locate him and confer with him as he came along the road
between Coal City and Viper. He thought very grimly and with bitter
futility of the force waiting so near and so eagerly keyed to action
under O'Keefe, which one minute of private speech would launch into a
hurricane effectiveness. In mad moments he had even tried to break the
chain between the steel bracelets that bit into his wrists. His Samson
strength had strained until the arteries swelled in his temples and it
has been almost enough--but not quite. A link had stretched a bit, but
the wrists had been so lacerated that the effort had to be abandoned.

Then when the day was spent towards late afternoon he caught the
chatter of the key again, somewhat confused by the intervening wall,
but though he missed part of the message he caught a few words which
were pregnant with meaning . . . "got her . . . in mine shaft . . .
back of Gap."

Now, Halloway told himself, as tortured sweat of suspense dripped down
his face, he must somehow convey word to Jerry O'Keefe--but how? He
had the facts--the location--the certainty and he could use none of his
vital information.

He twisted his two gyved hands around and got one of them into his coat
pocket. He brought out the pipe which he could neither fill nor light,
but there was a certain steadying comfort in feeling its cool stem
between his teeth.

During the captive's leisure for reflection he had been pondering one
point which had puzzled him. From what telegraph office out there in
the wilds was Wicks acting as intelligence bureau? Obviously he must
be near the Gap itself as the station wire followed the railroad.

Then he remembered a device that he had seen used about mining
properties and laughed at his own stupidity in remaining as long
baffled. The few telephones hereabouts were party lines where all
conversation could be overheard and so, for the use of highwaymen, they
were unavailable. Wicks had merely brought a key, a batte