ly. "There is the signal; give it
yourself."

A little red lamp suddenly glowed on the marble switchboard.

"What is that?" asked Ela.

"That is a signal from the lower rooms," said the man sullenly; "they
want more power."

Ela turned on the man with a snarl, raised his pistol and there was
murder in his eyes.

"Mercy!" gasped the Italian, and putting out his hand he grasped a long
red switch marked 'Danger' and pulled it over. Instantly all the lights
in the power house went dim, and the great whirling wheels slowed down
and stopped. Only the light of day illuminated the power house. Ela,
standing on the controlling platform, wiped his perspiring face with the
back of a hand which was shaking as though with ague.

"I wonder if I was in time?" he muttered.

The big machinery hall was now alive with detectives.

"Take charge of every man," Ela ordered; "see that nobody touches any of
these switches. Arrest stokers and keep them apart. Now you," he said,
addressing the foreman in Italian, "you seem a decent fellow, and I am
going to give you a chance of earning not only your freedom, but a
substantial reward. I am a police officer and I have come to make an
inspection of this house. You spoke of the lower rooms--do you know the
way there?"

The man hesitated.

"The lift cannot work, signor," he said, with a shrug of his shoulders,
"now that the electric current is stopped."

"Is there no other way?"

Again the man hesitated.

"There are stairs, signor," he stammered after a while, then continued
rapidly: "If this is a crime and Signor Moole is an anarchist, I know
nothing of it, I swear to you by the Virgin. I am an honest man from
Padua, and I have no knowledge of such things as your Excellency speaks
about."

Ela nodded.

"I am willing to believe that," he said in a milder tone. "Now, my
friend, you shall undo a great deal of mischief that has been done by
showing me the way to the underground rooms."

"I am at your service," said the man helplessly. "I call all men to
witness that I have done my best to carry out the instructions which the
padrone has given me."

He led the way out of the power house through a door which led to a
large stretch of private garden behind the main building, across a
well-kept lawn to an area basement which ran the whole length of the
house.

In this, at the far end, was a door, and the man opened it with a key
upon a bunch which he took from his pocket. They had