taken into his possession the crude map of the Gatun
dam which Ned had discovered in the old temple bomb-room. The next room,
the one from which the alleged sick man had been taken, was also in
disorder, and the door which connected the two apartments had been forced
open. There was a strong odor of chloroform in both rooms.

The clerk did not need to be told what had taken place. His face turned
white as chalk and his voice trembled as he asked:

"What is to be done? Think of the lieutenant being carried off from this
hotel in the daytime. It will ruin us."

"First," Ned replied, "you must make up your mind to keep what has been
done a profound secret. You may tell the proprietor if you see fit to do
so, but no one else must know."

"But the secret service men must be told."

"Not now," Ned replied. "I have an idea that I can restore the lieutenant
to his friends without any row being made over the matter."

"But how? I don't understand."

"At least," Ned urged, "wait until two o'clock to-morrow morning. I am
going out now on an expedition which may reveal many things, if I succeed.
If I fail, why, then you must notify the secret service men and look for
me in some of the pools about Gatun."

The clerk finally consented to this arrangement, and in ten minutes Ned
and his chums were speeding toward Gatun on a railroad motor car.

CHAPTER XX.

THE SPOIL OF THE LOCKS.

At eleven o'clock that night the workmen employed at the locks, the
spillway, and the barrier of the Gatun dam found that their lights were
not working satisfactorily and sent word back to the electric department
that something was amiss.

The electric department sent word back to the men in the excavations that
the lights were all right so far as they were concerned, that they were
doing their full duty efficiently, and that the men with the shovels, the
dynamite and the dump cars might go chase themselves.

This expression of fact and permission did not make it any lighter at the
workings, but the men kept on, in the intermittent showers of
illumination, and grumbled while they excavated and piled in the concrete.
At last, just before midnight, the incandescence did not come back to the
globes, and the men gathered in groups to discuss the matter and express
heated opinions of the efficiency of the men in charge of the lighting
plant.

The workmen moved about here and there in the shadows and clambered like
ants over the great bu