"Again I say you lie. You were consulting with Captain Dunham, of the Dreadnought _Manhattan_, earlier this evening. You were seen to show him the papers, and explain some of the points of the test which is to be made of your gun shortly. Come, we don't want to be unnecessarily rough with you. Are you going to give the papers up?" "No!" The answer snapped out like the crack of a whip. Ned noted with satisfaction that the inventor's former fire and decision seemed to be returning. "Then we must search you. Men----" The elder Pulsifer pointed to the inventor, while the younger covered him with the revolver. One of the latter's bediamonded fingers was crooked on the trigger as if he longed to pull it. Instantly Carl Schultz, Silas and Hank, who had all three started forward at the command, seized and held Mr. Varian tightly, while the younger Pulsifer, still with his revolver in hand, tapped the inventor's coat to find the hiding-place of the papers. "Ah!" he exclaimed suddenly, with a cry of triumph. A crisp, crackling sound had rewarded his search. An instant later, from a secret pocket in the inventor's coat, he had drawn forth a flat bundle of papers. The two Pulsifers, their eyes shining greedily, scanned them closely beneath the lamp, and then uttered what was a perfect howl of baffled rage. The blueprints of the breech-block, without which the gun would be useless and the formula so much waste-paper, were not there. "Look here, Varian," snarled the elder Pulsifer, "we've been pretty lenient with you, so far. We intend to be so no longer. Where are those blueprints?" "Where you will never get them," bravely replied the inventor. "You are overconfident, my friend," sneered the elder Pulsifer. "We not only will get them, but by your own lips you will tell us where to go to acquire them." If the faces of the Pulsifers had borne an evil look before, they became as avid as those of vultures now. The inventor, who was fast overcoming the effects of the drug, folded his arms defiantly, his captors having released him when the search was given up by the younger Pulsifer. "Bind him!" The command was snapped out by the elder of the brothers. Instantly the three hired rascals who had held him before pounced on the inventor, and roped him tightly in the chair. Resistance was useless, and the inventor submitted to the ordeal with an unflinching countenance. "Now, then, Varian, have you changed your mind?" "Not yet; and I never shall if you wish to know, Dave Pulsifer." "Very well. We have tried fair means, now we'll adopt other tactics." The Pulsifers whispered together a few minutes, and then the younger brother left the room. He returned with a fair-sized keg, which seemed to be heavy. This he placed in a corner of the room. "What on earth are they going to do?" Ned wondered to himself. He was not to be left long in doubt.