t leaving a guard. He
had overlooked a point in the game there, for he had not apprehended such
prompt action on the part of the men he had pitted himself against.

However, the plan had miscarried because of his waking at the critical
moment, and here he was, at the door of the men who had sent the man about
their murderous work. But were these the principals? When he thought of
the two who had hastened off toward Gatun in a motor car he did not
believe that they were.

"I shall have to look in other places besides subterranean chambers for
the men in charge," he thought. "These fellows are merely tools."

Presently the sharp click-click of metal came no more through the heavy
air of the room, and Ned, awaking Jimmie, who had fallen asleep again,
moved into the small room from which the doorway gave a view of the
stairs. He could see from this room that the sun was shining brightly
outside.

Ned had scarcely stationed himself in the heavy shadows back of the
doorway when four men came down the passage and passed him. He had no
doubt that they were the workmen going out for the day. Such work as they
did must needs be done in the night.

Two of the men were tall and slim, with Spanish-looking faces, and two
were short and stout, with a heavy droop to their shoulders and broad
faces almost entirely covered with whiskers.

"The original anarchists," whispered Jimmie, as the two short men passed.

After the disappearance of the workmen all was still in the underground
rooms. The door to the work-chamber had been left open, and Ned knew that
one of two things was the solution to this.

Either there were other men in the room, or there were watchers on the
outside. He ventured out in the passage at the foot of the stairs and
looked up. A roughly-dressed man stood half in view, his back to the
watcher. When Ned turned back he saw Jimmie disappearing into the
work-room. He called softly to him, but the boy passed on through the
doorway and was lost to sight.

Annoyed at the unnecessary risk taken by the boy, Ned stepped back into
the room he had just left and waited half expecting to hear a call for
assistance. He knew that he could be of more assistance there than in the
open doorway to the room which the boy had entered. There he would at
least have the first shot if Jimmie was pursued and made for the stairs.

While he waited almost holding his breath, he grasped the bomb he had
brought with him from the cottage.