ld summon up courage enough to stretch
out a hand, and try to touch whatever it was that moved the glowing
ashes.

Wire!

Yes; there was no doubt of it--wire. A long thin wire stretched pretty
tightly reached right across me, and evidently passed from the window
overlooking the lane across the furnace and out of the window by the
side of the dam.

What did it mean--what was going to happen?

I asked myself these questions as I bent towards the furnace, touching
the wire which glided on through my hand towards the window by the dam.

It was all a matter of moments, and I could feel that someone must be
drawing the wire out there by the dam, though how I could not tell, for
it seemed to me that there was nothing but deep water there.

"Some one must have floated down the dam in a boat," I thought in a
flash; but no explanation came to the next part of my question, what was
it for?

As I bent forward there wondering what it could mean, I began to
understand that there must be some one out in the lane at the other end
of the wire, and in proof of this surmise I heard a low scraping noise
at the window on my right, and then a hiss as if someone had drawn his
breath in between his lips.

What could it mean?

I was one moment for shouting, "Who's there?" the next for turning on my
bull's-eye; and again the next for running and rousing up Uncle Jack.

Then I thought that I would shout and call to Piter; but I felt that if
I did either of these things I should lose the clue that was gliding
through my hands.

What could it mean?

The wire, invisible to me, kept softly stirring the glowing ashes, and
seemed to be visible there. Elsewhere it was lost in the black darkness
about me, but I felt it plainly enough, and in my intense excitement,
hundreds of yards seemed to have passed through my hand before I felt a
check and in a flash knew what was intended.

For, all at once, as the wire glided on, something struck against my
hand gently, and raising the other it came in contact with a large
canister wrapped round and round with stout soft cord.

What for?

I knew in an instant; I had read of such outrages, and it was to guard
against them that we watched, and kept that dog.

I had hold of a large canister of gunpowder, and the soft cord wrapped
around it was prepared fuse.

I comprehended too the horrible ingenuity of the scheme, which was to
draw, by means of the wire, the canister of gunpowder on to the f