ll, the murderer! You at once start in
pursuit; by a superb effort you catch up the train, and just succeed
in swinging yourself safely on board. You can do a little sprinting, I
suppose?"

"I could give an ordinary train a bit of a start, no doubt," said
Percy with confidence.

"Just so," pursued the producer. "And now you find yourself
confronting the miscreant, Bill. The train is passing through a city.
It is on the elevated railway. Bill makes a dash for the door, springs
out, and lands on the roof of a house. You follow him--your leap being
considerably greater, because between his jump and yours the train has
proceeded a certain distance."

"Precisely," said Percy.

"Now there is a scramble over the roof-tops. You climb up pipes, slide
down slates, leap across spaces between separate houses, cling to
coping stones, and all that sort of thing."

"I grasp the idea," said Percy.

[Illustration: "HE CUTS THE WIRES ON WHICH YOU ARE CROSSING."]

"At last Bill is seized with a notion. He throws himself on to the
telephone wires, and, hanging by his hands, manages to convey himself
across to the houses on the opposite side of the road. You imitate
him. As Bill arrives on the other side, he turns and cuts the wires
on which you are crossing. Before the ends of the wires fall, however,
you turn a quick somersault and land beside Bill. Once more there is
a race over the roofs until Bill reaches a factory chimney. Down the
shaft he dives. So do you. Into the furnace below, then out of it, the
chase continues--it doesn't pause for a moment."

"Not a moment," echoed Percy as in a trance.

[Illustration: "THE LAST SCENE OF ALL WILL BE YOUR WEDDING."]

"Yes, it does, for you and Bill have dragged out of the furnace some
of the burning coal; this has caught some inflammable material, and
soon the whole factory is alight. Now you rush round to alarm the
workers. And what do you find? Mignon! She had gone out into the world
to earn her own bread, and had found employment in this factory. The
manager of the factory, an arch villain, had noted Mignon's beauty,
and just as you arrive he is dragging her away. You snatch Mignon
from his grasp. At that moment Bill comes up, takes in the situation,
seizes the treacherous manager, and flings him into the devouring
flames. Then Bill assists you to carry Mignon through the suffocating
smoke out to safety, but as you disappear the now dying manager draws
his revolver and fires aft