With every effort of will he held his muscles steady when he wanted to run. Clear faculties would be all he had left to pit against an adversary certainly more than simply vindictive. The unknown was almost as brilliant in mind as was his cousin, Grover.
Grover? Why he would have thought out that one and only way in.
Roger, forcing himself to be calm, realized at once how his extra protection had been turned against him.
He had wired to the telescope. Some one, climbing the candy factory fire escape, looking down from the roof of that building, could, by the angle of view, have seen him attach that wire, peering down past the bulk of the telescope. Thus charged, all the miscreant had to do was to lay a wire or rod or any metallic carrier, from the candy factory drains or rainspouts across to the skylight. By pushing it into contact with the heavy charge in the telescope, a short-circuit could be established that would blow even the main-line fuses.
Thus, and in no other way, could the devices have been rendered impotent, the locks be only held by wires which a powerful implement in hands so adroit could easily sever.
Even the alarms would not work. They had undoubtedly operated at the instant of the break, and in time a Falcon patrol agent and anyone who called police from home, would help him. But until then!——
He must, Roger knew, be his own protector.
At ten Grover would arrive, using a pre-arranged signal.
Not for an hour would he come.
“Self-preservation is the first law of Nature,” Roger’s mind in a whimsical flash reminded him. Instead of throwing his faculties into a turmoil, the imminent danger calmed him. That much Grover had made him learn.