ter, when they followed up the wires which Blake had
severed, which had run from the brass-bound box to a point near
the spillway of the dam, it was found that only a small charge of
dynamite had been buried there--a charge so small that it could
not possibly have done more than very slight damage to the
structure.

"I can't understand it," said Captain Wiltsey. "They could just as
well have put a ton there, and blown the place to atoms, and yet
they didn't use enough to blow a boulder to bits. I don't
understand it."

"But why should Mr. Alcando try to blow up the dam at all?" asked
Blake, "That's what I can't understand."

But a little later they did, for the Spaniard confessed. He had to
admit his part in the plot, for the moving pictures, made by the
automatic camera, were proof positive that he was the guilty one.

"Yes, it was I who tried to blow up the dam," Alcando admitted,
"but, as you have seen, it was only to be an attempt to damage it.
It was never intended to really destroy it. It was an apparent
attempt, only."

"But what for?" he was asked.

"To cause a lack of confidence in the Canal," was the unexpected
answer. "Those I represent would like to see it unused. It is
going to ruin our railroad interests."

Then he told of the plot in detail.

Alcando was connected, as I have told you, with a Brazilian
railroad. The road depended for its profits on carrying goods
across South America. Once the Canal was established goods could
be transported much more cheaply and quickly by the water route.
The railroad owners knew this and saw ruin ahead of them if the
Canal were to be successful. Consequently they welcomed every
delay, every accident, every slide in Culebra Cut that would put
off the opening of the great waterway.

But the time finally came when it was finished, and a success.
Then one of the largest stockholders of the railroad, an
unprincipled man, planned a plot. At first his fellow stockholders
would not agree to it, but he persuaded them, painting the ruin of
their railroad, and saying only slight damage would be done to the
Canal.

His plan was to make a slight explosion, or two or more of them,
near Culebra Cut or at the great dam. This, he anticipated, would
cause shippers to regard the Canal with fear, and refuse to send
their goods through it. In that way the railroad would still hold
its trade.

Alcando was picked for the work. He did not want to undertake it,
but he was prom