and close the current. Wait a bit! I'd better make one."

Alma sat down on a box, and her new Lohengrin set to work with shears
and file to make something that would answer for an armature and still
be small enough to hide in the hand. Cutting off two small pieces of
insulated copper wire, he bound them together side by side at one end.
The loose ends he separated by crowding a bit of rubber between them,
and then with the file and his knife he removed a part of the insulating
covering till the bright copper showed at the tips of each wire.

"There! You can hide that in the pocket of your dress, or hold it in
your hand even. When you wish to close the circuit, pinch the wires, and
they will touch each other. When you withdraw the pressure the rubber
will push them apart."

Alma declared she could do it easily, and the armature having been
connected with the wires and the battery, they both prepared to go to
the parlor.

Down the stairs they crept, slowly unwinding two delicate coils of
insulated wire as they went, and pushing them back against the wall well
out of sight. When they came to the mats Alma lifted them up, and Elmer
laid the wires down, and then the mats covered them from sight.

"Now, you sit here, in a comfortable chair, and hide the wires in the
folds of your dress. I'll lead them off over the carpet behind you, and
unless the----Lawrence is brighter than I think he is, he'll not find
them."

These mysterious operations were hardly completed before the door bell
rang and Lawrence came in. He did not seem particularly pleased to find
Mr. Franklin sitting up with Alma, and the meeting was not very cordial.
After a few unimportant remarks Mr. Franklin said that he must retire.

"I'd like to know, miss, what that puppy said to you. He's been here all
the evening, I dare say."

"He has, Lawrence; but I will not have my friends spoken of in that
way."

"Your friends indeed! What do you intend to do about it?"

Meanwhile her hand, persistently kept in her pocket, nervously moved the
electric armature, and a sudden twinge of pain startled her. Her finger,
caught between the wires, felt the shock of a returning current.
Suddenly the pain flashed again, and she understood it. Elmer was
replying to her. She forced herself to read his words by the pain the
wires caused her, and she spelled out:

"Keep cool. Don't fear him."

"Seems to me you're precious silent, miss."

"One might well keep silence wh