Jim, with excellent acting, kept up the pretense of reading a moment longer then slowly let the paper drop and himself slid down off the chair to the floor. Thus out of sight of the conspirators, he crept below the level of the window into the other room.
Joe saw the curtains across the street part a little and the face of the old scientist appeared. It wore a smile of satisfaction at having achieved its purpose. At the same time the power behind the instrument was evidently turned off, as the sparks ceased and the table was wheeled away from the window.
Again Joe caught a glimpse of two figures behind that of the old man and the hand of one of them came down congratulatingly on the scientist’s shoulder.
“I’d give a farm to be able to see the faces of those two men,” Joe said to Jim, who was standing out of range of the window, rubbing his arm. “Though of course,” he added, “I have no doubt as to who they are.”
“Harrish and Tompkinson of course,” remarked Jim. “They’re the subtle scoundrels who’ve engineered this thing. The old man is simply their tool. And now they’re congratulating him on the way he’s done his work. They can already hear the rustling of that two hundred thousand dollars they’re going to win.”
“That they were going to win,” corrected Joe, as he laid aside the field glasses. “But that’s all gone glimmering now. They’ll get no further chance to cripple us. We’ll get after them at once. How is the arm feeling, Jim?”
“It’s all right again,” was the reply. “That wasn’t kept up long enough to do any harm. I suppose at other times they’ve kept that thing going at us for an hour or more at a time.”
“Well, let’s get ready for lunch now,” said Joe. “We’ve done the best morning’s work of our lives.”
“Thanks to that old noddle of yours,” put in Jim. “The best detective on the force couldn’t have worked that thing out better than you have done. But now what’s your next step?”
“To put McRae wise to the whole thing,” replied Joe. “He’ll get the whole police department at work if necessary. We’ll hurry to the Polo Grounds and see him before the game.”