The next instant the watchers saw the professor and his assistant rush out of the little building, towards the place where the animal lay right across the first four wires. In their excitement they both seemed to have forgotten the presence of the two Englishmen in the woods during the previous evening, for they were both unarmed. Or perhaps it was that they imagined them to be the present victims of their cunning. "Hoch! Another royal boar for the larder, Fritz!" exclaimed the professor. "We shall have the winter’s supply complete very soon." "Gut, mein herr!" came the answer. "Better go back and switch off the current, so that we can take it away," urged the chief, and, staying but a second to see the royal victim, the assistant complied. This was what the two Englishmen had been waiting for. The moment of action had come at last. Gripping their pistols, they made ready to advance and take possession of the hangar during the absence of the inmates. "Sind Sie fertig, Friedrich?" called the professor. "Ja, das bin ich!" replied the other, as he left the workshop, and rejoined his companion. "Come along, the wires are dead now," whispered Keane, and, keeping well within the shadows of the trees, the two men crept forward, gained the rear of the structure, then cautiously worked their way round and entered the hangar unobserved. One glance about the well-fitted workshop sufficed. There were no further occupants, and they lowered their pistols. Sharpe at once sprang to the lever which regulated the powerful electrical current and clutched it. In another instant the two men without would have paid the extreme penalty, for they would have been instantly killed by their own evil device, but Keane stopped him:-- "Don’t!" he said. "We have much to learn. The professor at least must be taken alive, if possible. The secret he holds is too precious to be lost. Let us hide!" "Where can we hide?" asked the other, somewhat disappointed, and amazed at the further risks which his companion appeared willing to take in order to gratify an insatiable curiosity. "The tables may be quickly turned upon us." "We can shoot them as a last resort, if that is necessary," urged Keane, who knew the priceless value of the secrets which this place contained. "Hist! They are coming." "This way!" whispered Keane, and he drew his companion into a little recess, which had evidently been curtained off for the mechanic’s sleeping berth. They had barely withdrawn themselves into this narrow apartment when the two men entered, dragging the carcase of the wild boar with them. "Leave it there for a moment, Strauss. The message from the Rittmeister is due. I must also send him that other message again, as the first has not been acknowledged," were the professor’s first words. "Yes, sir. Shall I start the dynamos again?" asked the assistant. "Perhaps you’d better, but first hand me that message book and the secret code."