hand with a handkerchief, and disconnected
Aldrich followed Drew who led the
the wire from the water pipe.
way down the steps and then along the street.
“A ground!” he exclaimed. “The plate
The detective split. Drew posted two men at
you see there with the collectors in front of it the entrance of the building where Monneson
was grounded to the water-main. Take a look
had an office and a small exchange-room at the plate. There’s no danger now.”
below the level of the sidewalk.
“It’s gold!” declared Aldrich. “It’s
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14
gold on the street side. It’s so heavy I can’t lift This door was« tottering on its hinges
it.”
as Drew sprang forward and seized an ax. His
“What’s the other metal? What’s the
third blow sent it inward where it crashed
plate made of?”
upon a stone floor. Drawing a revolver Drew
“Looks like lead,” said Aldrich.
charged through the gloom. His light flashed
“All right—leave it. This is the as he stood in the center of a dark vault and receiving end of the game. This is where all searched each corner.
your gold has come. Now for the other end—
the sending end. Monneson ought to be the whole game is here.”
there!”
Lights were lit by the detectives who
Drew gave instructions to the had found the snap-switches. Aldrich stepped detectives as he passed through the outer over the fallen door and reached Drew’s side.
office. He climbed the stairs to the street, two The vault presented the appearance of a
steps at a time. “Come on!” he snapped to
cyclone-cellar struck by a cyclone. Wreckage Aldrich. “Come on, quick! The quarry is at the was everywhere. A large rotary-generator,
other place—I thought this would be the driven by a motor, had been overturned and generating end.”
smashed with a hammer. From this, wires led
Aldrich followed after the detective,
to a huge, lead disk that was supported by
his head in a whirl. They mounted the four
glass insulators of the petticoat pattern. In steps to the entrance of Grossman and front of this plate lay the remains of a glass Monneson’s. Drew paused and whispered to
tube which had once been all of six feet in
the detective on guard. The man pointed over diameter. Beyond this tube was a tangled mass his shoulder. “They’re trying to break in a
of white-metal wires arranged in a cage-
basement room,” he said. “It’s some job. They pattern. These wires flared as a funnel where sent for axes and crowbars.”
they reached the stone walls of the vault. It
“Good!” exclaimed Drew. “Stay right
was as if the lead plate, the tube and the outer here and don’t let anybody out except our own screen had formed the petal of some giant
men.”
flower. This flower pointed toward the Sub-
Heavy and ringing blows confirmed
the detective’s statement. Drew hurried
Drew stooped and picked up fragments
through the outer room, turned at a landing, of the tube. The thin glass cut his finger. “A and listened. The blows were repeated. transformer of some kind,” he said. “It’s Aldrich clutched his arm.
smashed now beyond putting together. I’ve an
“It’s all right,” said Drew. “Come idea it’s the first like this that was ever made.”
on!”!
The detective stepped back and eyed
The stairway was dark and dusty. It
the entire apparatus.
seemed to lead to a blank wall just beyond the
“Clever,” he said, half to himself. “It’s
bottom step. Drew flashed his light and clever and ten-years new. The current from discovered a small opening, through which he that rotary generator was transformed in some crawled on hands and knees. Aldrich followed manner by this tube. Rays were directed from him. They straightened in a cellar filled with the reflection of the lead plate. They were
old kegs and boxes bound with iron. The
guided by this funnel—coil of wire. In other detectives were at the furthermost end where a words this whole plant was a gigantic cathode great, sheathed door had barred their progress.
or electric projector from which rays were
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15
projected to the other plate, or anode, in the his is nothing less than the transmission of basement of the Financial Savings Building.”
electric waves through air or stone without the These rays, whatever they were, had the use of wires. The transmission of electric property of disintegrating gold and other power ‘via wireless’ has long been expected.”
metals and carrying their ions or atoms until Drew paused as a detective shouted at
they reached a lead disk. On this disk the gold the far end of the vault. Lights were flashed was deposited somewhat in the manner of
there. The detective, who had been stooping
electroplating. The vaults in the old portion of over a dark form, rose and came into the light.
“There’s a dead man over there,” he
consequently the gold was ‘melting,’ as we
said grimly. “It’s Monneson, I guess, from
called it.”
description. He’s all twisted. He’s taken
Aldrich passed his hand across his poison or been electrocuted.” The detective head.
glanced at the overturned transformer.
“Yes,” said Drew, “that is what
“Anything else over there?” asked
happened. Good thing we got it in time. Drew.
Monneson would have ‘melted’ all of your
“Yes, there is. There’s a chest
gold by the discharge of electricity through crammed full of big yellow bills.”
matter. He probably took his clue from
Drew turned to Aldrich.
electroplating and from the action of
“That closes the case,” he said.
radioactivity in a Crookes’s tube. This plant of