mportance then--not even our
own!" He laughed in a fashion almost kindly and clapped her lightly
once more on her shoulder: "Go, my child. The Fatherland is in
danger!"

She went, not looking back. He closed and locked the door behind her
and calmly turned to aid Ali Baba who was still fussing with the
wires. Presently, however, he mounted the bed where Neeland sat tied
and gagged; pulled from his pockets an auger with its bit, a
screw-eye, and block and tackle; and, standing on the bed, began to
bore a hole in the ceiling.

In a few moments he had fastened the screw-eye, rigged his block, made
a sling for his bombs out of a blanket, and had hoisted the three
cylinders up flat against the ceiling from whence the connecting wires
sagged over the foot of the bedstead to the alarm clock on the
washstand.

To give the clock more room on the glass shelf, Ali Baba removed the
toilet accessories and set them on the washstand; but he had no room
for a large jug of water, and, casting about for a place to set it,
noticed a railed bracket over the head of the bed, and placed it
there.

Then, apparently satisfied with his labours, he sat down Turk fashion
on the sofa, lighted a cigarette, selected a bonbon from the box
beside him, and calmly regaled himself.

Presently Golden Beard tied the cord which held up the sling in which
the bombs were slung against the ceiling. He fastened it tightly to
the iron frame of the bed, stepped back to view the effect, then
leisurely pulled out and filled his porcelain pipe, and seated himself
on the sofa beside Ali Baba.

Neither spoke; twice Golden Beard drew his watch from his waistcoat
pocket and compared it carefully with the dial of the alarm clock on
the washstand shelf. The third time he did this he tapped Ali Baba on
the shoulder, rose, knocked out his pipe and flung it out of the open
port.

Together they walked over to Neeland, examined the gag and ligatures
as impersonally as though the prisoner were not there, nodded their
satisfaction, turned off the electric light, and, letting themselves
out, locked the door on the outside.

It lacked five minutes of the time indicated on the alarm dial.

CHAPTER XXII

TWO THIRTEEN

To Neeland, the entire affair had seemed as though it were some rather
obvious screen-picture at which he was looking--some photo-play too
crudely staged, and in which he himself was no more concerned than any
casual spectator.

Until now, Ne