"Come here, Jack," said he. "I want you to look at the deadliest engine of
destruction ever invented or wielded by mortal man. I suspect that if you
were to reach out your hand and hold down the innocent-looking telegraph
key there you would instantly destroy every living creature in this city."
Jack turned a little pale, and put both hands behind him.
Darrow laughed. "Feel tempted?" he inquired.
"Makes me a little dizzy, like being on a height," confessed Jack. "How's
the trick turned?"
"I don't know," said Darrow. "I'm going to find out if I can."
Without attempting to touch anything, he proceeded to examine carefully
every detail of the apparatus.
"The batteries are nothing extraordinary, except in strength," he told
Jack, "and as near as I can make out the instrument is like any other. It
must be some modification in the sending apparatus, some system of
'tuning', perhaps--it's only a surmise. We'll just disconnect the
batteries," he concluded, "before we go to monkeying."
He proceeded carefully and methodically to carry out his expressed
intention. When he had finished the task he heaved a deep sigh of relief.
"I'm glad you feel that way, too," said Jack. "I didn't know what might
not happen."
"Me, either," confessed Darrow. "But now I think we're safe."
He proceeded on a methodical search through the intricacies of the
apparatus. For a time Jack followed him about, but after a while wearied
of so profitless an occupation, and so took to smoking on the
window-ledge.
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