ead of
his previous victim.

"I give you three minutes to decide," said Farrington.

"You are wasting three minutes," said the muffled voice of T. B. from
under the helmet.

Nevertheless Farrington took out his watch and held it in his unshaking
palm; for the space of a hundred and eighty seconds there was no sound
in the room save the loud ticking of the watch.

At the end of that time he replaced it in his pocket.

"Will you agree to do as I ask?" he said.

"No," was the reply with undiminished vigour.

"Let him have it," said Farrington savagely.

Dr. Fall put up his hand to the switch, and as he did so the lights
flickered for a moment and slowly their brilliancy diminished.

"Quick," said Farrington, and the doctor brought the switch over just
as the lights went out.

T. B. felt a sharp burning sensation that thrilled his whole being and
then lost consciousness.

CHAPTER XXI

There was a group of police officers about the gates of the Secret House
as the car bearing Ela and the woman came flying up.

The detective leapt out.

"They have taken T. B.," he said. He addressed a divisional inspector,
who was in charge of the corps.

"Close up the cordon," he went on, "and all men who are armed follow
me."

He raced up the garden path, but it was not toward the Secret House that
he directed his steps; he made a detour through a little plantation to
the power house.

A man stood at the door, a grimy-faced foreign workman who scowled at
the intruders. He tried to pull the sliding doors to their place, but
Ela caught the blue-coated man under the jaw and sent him sprawling into
the interior.

In an instant the detective was inside, confronting more scowling
workmen. A tall, good-looking man of middle age, evidently a decent
artisan, was in control, and he came forward, a spanner in his hand, to
repel the intruders.

But the pistol Ela carried was eloquent of his earnestness.

"Stand back," he said. "Are you in charge?"

The detective spoke Italian fluently.

"What does this mean, signor?" asked the foreman.

"It means that I give you three minutes to stop the dynamo."

"But that is impossible," said the other. "I cannot stop the dynamo; it
is against all orders."

"Stop that dynamo," hissed Ela between his teeth. "Stop it at once, or
you are a dead man."

The man hesitated, then walked to the great switchboard, brilliant with
a score of lights.

"I will not do it," he said sulki