r the third
time in darkness, but when this occurred the business men of the
district, who had been patient enough the first night and enduring
enough the second, loosed their reins and became frantic.

At this happy juncture the Consolidated Company threw an army of
canvassers into those twelve monopolized blocks, and the canvassers
did not need to be men who could talk, for arguments were not
necessary. The old, worn-out equipment of the Brightlight Electric,
and the fact that it was managed and controlled by men who knew
nothing whatever of the business, its very president a young fellow
who had probably never seen a dynamo until he took charge, were
enough.

Bobby, passing over Plum Street one morning, was surprised to see a
large gang of men putting in new poles, and when he reached the office
he asked Johnson about it. In two minutes he had definitely
ascertained that no orders had been issued by the Brightlight Electric
Company nor any one connected with it, and further inquiry revealed
the fact that these poles were being put up by the Consolidated. He
called up Chalmers at once.

"I knew I'd hear from you," said Chalmers, "and I have already been at
work on the thing. Of course, you saw what was in the papers."

"No," confessed Bobby. "Only the sporting pages."

"You should read news, local and general, every morning," scolded
Chalmers. "The new city council, at their meeting last night, granted
the Consolidated a franchise to put up poles and wires in this
district for lighting."

"But how could they?" expostulated Bobby. "Our contract with the city
has several years to run yet, and guarantees us exclusive privilege to
supply light, both to the city and to private individuals, in those
twelve blocks."

"That cleverly unobtrusive joker clause about 'reasonably satisfactory
service,'" replied Chalmers angrily. "By the way, have you
investigated the cause of those accidents very thoroughly? Whether
there was anything malicious about them?"

Bobby confessed that he had not thought of the possibility.

"I think it would pay you to do so. I am delving into this thing as
deeply as I can, and with your permission I am going to call your
father's old attorney, Mr. Barrister, into consultation."

"Go ahead, by all means," said Bobby, worried beyond measure.

At five o'clock that evening Con Ripley came jauntily to the plant of
the Brightlight Electric Company. Con was the engineer, and the world
was a ver