The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-03-26

q bttis sent lOI u uUlIOTIIlSu dtlStluduL
and instructed that attendant to es-
cort his visitors to the bank vaults.
''I3e so good, MIR. Wells. as to show
our clients that our vaults are not
made of tissue paper"
~ These people aresright," he said to
. Margory and Marley as they made
their way back TO their. waiting
flimousire. Ten thousand one-armed
crooks couldn't batter their way into
that bank"
A certain one-armed criminal, new
ertheless, was at that precise moment
very busily engaged in preparing for
his assault on this Gibraltar of gold
so proudly regarded. as impregnable.
Two worllmen in the uniform of Gem
eral Electric employees, exploring d
section Of abandoned cable gallery,
were busily engaged in .enlarging
wire conduit which met this gallery
at right angles. There, by means of
an electric mining drill, they bur-
rowed like two moles deep beneath
the level of the street along which the
traffic Of n great city so ceaselessly
ebbed and flowed From n manhole
opening into this gallery was quietly
passed q huge cylinder of iron capped
by a drum Of zinc having a hinged
cover The two subterranean workers
had been warned to handle the cylin-
der with the utmost care. And this
they did, knowing full well that it's
weight was due to the fart of its
being tightly packed with high ex-
plosive, while the zinc drum was
merely a screen for an ingenious de-
Y,{St7, s..,f, e{ss4fY ~
alarm clock with few inches of pic
ture wire attached TO the shaft of its
minute hand wheel. This wire, in
turn, was wound about the cork in
a small bottle Of sulphuric acid nest
ing in d bed Of illuminate caps, SO that
as the winding shaft took up the wire,
once the clock was adjusted and set
in motion. the tightening wire with
drew the cork, liberated the acid and
detonated the huge charge.
y T.
Legar himself, in the meantime,
having clothed number of his heneh-
mon in uniforms and caps bearing the
Inscription western National Bank"
directed his attention to the mitch
more critical task Of tracing SIGMA
trire on n typewriter sheet bearing
the embossed imprint Of yet another
bank, the Third National. This he did
by imposing his sheet of paper on an
out-of-date municipal reform petit
ton, on which was inscribed. in a COL
umn of others, the signature Of
Henry II. Stonington," With both
sheets placed over a square Of plate
glass under which stood a strong cleo
tric globe, the thoughtful-faced man
with the pen was able to trace on the
upper sheet an exact facsimile of the
writing. on tho lower. Then, having
made sure that his secret enissary
had duly executed his plan of bridging
the Stoaington uptown house wire, he
telephoned to one McTigue certain
orders as to tho future movements of
a duly designated motor truck.
lie consulted his watch from time
to time, with his eyes always going
hungriiy back to the heavy pillared
bank entrance itself.
IN one minute" he announced,
they'll get n dose of the medicine
they gave us this morning" Again
he looked at his watch.
In fifty seconds wen show 'em
that two can play at this explosion
camel"
Tho hand that held the watch
trembed a little.
I'm ten seconds" he whispered. ,.---s
One of Legar's men, pushing up to
the window to speak with him. stared
vacantly into the SCARED face sud-
denly grown so pallid. Instead of
speaking he, too. stared into the
street. But stu the seconds dragged
by.
ats time that"
But the sentence was never fin
ished. A sudden great thud and roar
Of sound cut off all smaller sounds.
A blast, like the blast of a thousand
of Thors hammers on the rocky crust
of the world, shook the city like an
earthquake. In the same breath came
an answering chorus of sharper
sounds, the crash and fall of glass,
the rumble Of rending and tumbling
masonry the rattle Of splintered
wood and metal once more raining
earthward.
FIRE." was the cry that filed that
canyon. 1.-THE buildings on fret"
And it was then that Legar, replac-
ing his watch In his pocket and toss-
ing aside the field glasses through
which he had been viewing the street,
showed that he was once more him.
self.
"Now's the time, men," he an
nounced to his followers. ito get
ready for work!' p