The peril was over for the moment. The severed pole was withdrawn, and for what seemed like an endless interval the attack paused. The three besieged men kept watch as they might, creeping from window to window. Out under the blue glare of the commissary arc-light the body of the negro porter lay as it had fallen. Once, Ford thought he heard groans from the black shadow where the fat cook had disappeared, but he could not be sure. On the other side of the private car, and half-way between it and the forty-thousand-pound load of high explosives, the petard oyster-tin lay undisturbed, with the carving-knife sticking in the sand beside it. "What will they try next?" queried Adair, when the suspense was again growing intolerable. "It is simple enough, if they happen to think of it," was Ford's rejoinder. "A few sticks of dynamite in a plugged gas-pipe: cut your fuse long enough, light it, and throw the thing under the car. That would settle it." Adair yawned sleepily. "Well, they've got all night for the inventive part of it. There's no rescue for us unless somebody--a good husky army of somebodies--just happens along." "The army is less than eight miles away--over at Frisbie's camp," said Ford. "With Dick to lead them, the track-layers would sack this place in about five minutes. If I could only get to the wire!" Brissac heard the "if." "Let me try to run their picket line, Ford," he said eagerly. "If I can get around to our quarters and into the telegraph tent--" "You couldn't do it, Roy. There is the proof of it," pointing to the body of the slain negro. "But I have been thinking of another scheme. The track-camp wire is bracketed across the yard on the light-poles. I have my pocket relay. I wonder if we could manage to cut in on that wire?" "Wait a minute," Brissac interrupted. He was gone but a moment, and when he returned he brought hope with him. "The wire is down and lying across the front vestibule," he announced excitedly. "They must have cut it up yonder by the telegraph tent and the slack has sagged down this way." "Which gives us a dead wire without any batteries," said Ford gloomily; and then: "Hold on--aren't there electric call-bells in this car, Adair?" "Yes, several of them; one in each state-room." "Good! that means batteries of some sort," said Ford. "Rummage for them, Brissac, while I get that wire in here." The wire was successfully pulled in through the front vestibule without giving the alarm. Ford twisted it in two when he had enough of it to reach the central compartment. Adair did sentry duty while the two technicians wrought swiftly. The bell battery was found, the ground connection made with a bit of copper wire stripped from one of the state-rooms, and Ford quickly adjusted the delicate spring of the tiny field relay.