The explosions, it was learned, were caused by small bombs about the size of an orange. These were placed in the selected houses and timed to explode in a few hours. Evidently there was some defect in the mechanism of the one sent to Canning Town, and the man who placed it there must have seen that it was likely to explode prematurely and rushed in panic from the house.
But of the source of the bombs one and all of the men professed complete ignorance. They were, it was asserted, received by post from different places on the Continent. It was evident that the crafty scoundrel at the head of the terrible organisation took elaborate precautions to prevent their sources of origin being discovered.
But to have traced the outbreak to Anarchist sources was a step of the first importance. Immediately every branch of the secret service of the western world was concentrated on the problem.
A hint from one of the men captured, who collapsed under the cross-examination to which the known leaders were subjected, put the police in possession of one of the bombs. It had arrived by post the day before, and the miscreant to whom it was sent was caught before he had time to make use of it.
It was now possible to prove definitely that the disease caused by the bombs was chemical in its origin. Upon analysis the powder with which the bomb was filled was found to consist of a series of, apparently, quite harmless chemicals. A small portion fired by the detonator found in the bomb gave off dense clouds of the pale-violet vapour, and animals exposed to it were speedily killed, exhibiting every symptom of the terrible disease. Unhappily the secret of the detonator used defied discovery. The one found in the bomb had been used in the only experiment that had been made, and too late it was discovered that no fulminating material known would explode the apparently harmless powder.
“That seems to narrow it down to Barakoff,” said Dick Manton a few days later when Regnier brought them the news. “I don’t think either of the others is equal to research work capable of producing such results. Do you know where Barakoff is now?” he asked in French.
Regnier shook his head.
“He was in Moscow a year ago,” he replied, “and after that we heard of him in Prague, in Rome, and lastly in Madrid, but he disappeared suddenly and we have not been able to pick up his tracks again. He is a short, powerful, thickset man with a rather hunched back, but nothing else peculiar about his appearance.”
Next day, however, Regnier came to the adventurous trio in great excitement.
“Barakoff is in England!” he declared. “We have just had word from Gaston Meunier who saw him in Brighton a week ago!”