CHAPTER IX.
NICK CARTER CAPTURES THE FORTY SPIES.
All this that has been described was, of course, enacted in a very short space of time-much less than it requires to tell it.
Nick knew perfectly well that the men could not withstand a continuance of that awful shock for a very great length of time, and he had prepared himself for the end of it.
There were thick-soled rubber shoes for himself and the senator to don; and there were heavy rubber gloves for their hands, ready beside them; and there was a long rope ready for his uses, also.
He seized that now, after having adjusted the rubber shoes and gloves, and having made one end of the rope fast, he hurried down the stairs, and as he passed each man, he hastily threw two half-hitches of the rope he carried over the head of each man as he passed him.
It did not take him long to arrive at the bottom of the stairs, and here again he made fast the other end of the rope; after which he returned rapidly up the stairs again, and hastened into the room where the switchboard was located.
For a moment he turned the current completely off, and then put it ipart way on again; just far enough so
that the imprisoned men could feel that there was still a shock passing through their bodies; just enough so that they would not dare to renew their struggles for liberty.
"Now, senator," he called out, "come here, will you?"