"Wait a moment, senator."
"All right."
"There is a wire run into each of the houses, which brings in the strong current that operates the arc-lights of the street. Have you gotten onto that?"
"Yes; but won't it kill a man?"
"It might; but I haven't finished explaining yet."
"Go on, then."
"There is a switchboard arranged with resistance-coils, in the front room of the second floor of each house,and from either of those switchboards I can turn onwhatever amount of current I please. If you werestanding here, holding to this rail, and I were at theswitchboard, I could give you enough of a shock toknock you galley west, or I could give you just enoughto astonish and frighten you, as I happened to wish todo. See?"
"Jingo, but that's great!"
"I believed that I could induce these men of Mustushimi's, or, at least, enough of them to make it worth while, to attack me in this house, and to force an entrance here. I laid my plans to that effect before I left New York. I even had Chick cause a notice to appear in the Star to-night, that Nick Carter was in town on an important case, connected with a certain Japanese gentleman who had once been ordered out of the country. You may be sure that some of his associates saw that, and called his attention to it."
"You seem to have forgotten nothing, Carter."