The senator went to him, and the detective continued:
"Will you stand here near the switch?"
"Yes."
"If I call out to you, throw the switch over to this notch. That will be far enough. I only want to be assured that not one of those men is going to get away."
"Have you got the chief?" asked the senator.
"No; he escaped, but we will get him, somehow, before morning."
The detective then returned to the stairway, and at the top he stopped a moment, and said to the men he had used so harshly-for already they were beginning to struggle for liberty.
"Stop that struggling, or I will give you the full force of the current again. Stop, I tell you!"
They obeyed at once, for their terror was almost pitiful to behold. And if you stop to think upon it whose would not be so under like circumstances?
"Now," continued the detective, "listen to me. I am going to begin at the bottom of the stairs, and tie you, one by one, so that none can escape. If any one of you should make an effort to do so the current will instantly be turned on again, and you will all suffer for the act of that one. Do you understand?"