"We ought to give the alarm," said Blake.
"Before it is too late," assented Joe. "Where can it be? It seems near here, and yet we can't locate it."
"Get down on your hands and knees and crawl around," advised Blake. In this fashion they searched for the elusive tick-tick. They could hear it, now plainly, and now faintly, but they never lost it altogether. And each of them recognized the peculiar clicking sound as the same they had heard coming from the brass-bound box Mr. Alcando had said was his new alarm clock.
"Hark!" suddenly exclaimed Blake.
Off to the left, where was planted the automatic camera, came a faint noise. It sounded like a suppressed exclamation. Then came an echo as if someone had fallen heavily.
An instant later the whole scene was lit up by a brilliant flash—a flash that rivaled the sun in brightness, and made Blake and Joe stare like owls thrust suddenly into the glare of day.
"The dynamite!" gasped Joe, unconsciously holding himself in readiness for a shock.
"The flashlight—the automatic camera!" cried Blake. There was no need for silence now.
The whole scene was brilliantly lighted, and remained so for many seconds. And in the glare of the magnesium powder the moving picture boys saw a curious sight.
Advancing toward the dam was a solitary figure, which had come to halt when the camera went off with the flashlight. It was the figure of a man who had evidently just arisen after a fall.