orch, and the overpowering light gave place to a more
agreeable gloom. Then he took from his pocket a tiny electric bell and a
little battery made of a small ink bottle. Then he drew forth a small
roll of wire, and securing one end to the battery, with the revolver
still in hand, he walked round the chair three times, and bound the
thief into it with the slender wire.

"Stop this fooling, boy! Lower your revolver, and let me explain
matters."

"No, sir. When I have you fast so that you can do no harm, I talk with
you--not before. Hold back your head. That's it. Rest it against the
chair while I draw this wire over your throat."

"For God's sake, stop! Do you intend to garrote me?"

"No. Only I mean to make you secure."

"This won't hold me long. I'll break your wires in a flash, you little
fool."

"No, you will not. The moment the wire is parted that bell will ring,
and I shall begin firing, and keep it up till you are disabled or dead."

The man swore savagely, but the cold thread of insulated wire over his
throat thrilled his every nerve. It seemed some magic bond, mysterious,
wonderful, and dreadful. This cool man of science was an angel of awful
and incomprehensible power. His lamp of such mystic brilliance and that
battery quite unnerved his coward heart. What awful torture, what
burning flash of lightning might not rend him to blackened fragments if
the wires were broken! To such depths of puerile ignorance and terror
did the wretch sink in his guilty fancy. He dared not move a muscle lest
the wire break. The very thought of it filled him with unspeakable
agony. The son of science placed himself before his prisoner. With the
revolver at easy rest, he said:

"Mr. Belford, I am going to call help. Do not move while I open the
door."

In mortal terror the wretch turned his head round to see what was going
on. He managed to get a glimpse of the room without breaking the wire
round his throat, and he saw the young man stoop to the floor at the
door and pick up something. Then he made some strange and rapid motions
with the fingers of his right hand, while the left still steadied the
revolver.

For several minutes nothing happened. The two men glared at each other
in silence, and then there was a sound of opening doors. One closed with
an echoing slam that resounded strangely through the old house, and then
there were light footsteps in the hall.

"Oh! Elmer! What is it? What has happened?"

"Nothing ver