If this is so, it follows that he can cut off all life
by stopping all heat. If his threat is carried out, we can but look
forward to a repetition on a large scale of the City Hall affair."
The aged financier now spoke to Simmons.
"And the last report from the searchers?" he asked formally.
"The search is being pushed, sir," replied the operator, "by twenty
thousand men. There remain some fifty miles of country to go over, Mr.
Lyons."
Lyons turned his shaggy head toward a younger, slim, keen-eyed man of
fifty.
"And the city will, in your judgment, Mr. Perkins, take how long to
empty?"
"Days--in the present confusion," said Perkins shortly. "We can move only
a limited percentage. Thank God, most of our men are standing by. I think
all our rolling stock is moving."
Lyons nodded twice.
"And you?" he asked the third of the party, a stout young man of
thirty-eight or so.
"How many stations are on the job, Simmons?" asked this man.
"All but two, sir," replied the operator. "D and P don't answer. I guess
they beat it."
"How do they report the bulletin men?"
"On the job," replied the wireless man.
The stout young man turned to Lyons.
"Well, sir," said he, "I don't know whether we or the hand of death will
be called on to quiet them"--he paused for an instant with uplifted hand;
the roar and crash and wail of the city-wide riot surged into the gap of
his silence--"but if it is we," he went on, "our little arrangements are
made.
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