For a few seconds the detached car keeps up with the train, then as its momentum is exhausted, a rapidly widening gap is made. "In five minutes you will have light," Nevins calls grimly, as he looks at the fading car. The train rushes ahead with speed that is imperceptibly increased. Nevins climbs to the top of the car and crawls toward the front of the train. He works his way to the coach immediately behind the motor. Standing on the platform he removes his coat and trousers and reappears arrayed in the common suit of a train hand. A soft cap completes the disguise. A faint rumble reaches his ears. "_The first Magnate has fallen_" he whispers, as if confiding a secret. "Yes; I have carried out my plan. James Golding is buried at the bottom of the Channel. The time-fuse worked." When the train emerges from the tunnel it is stopped by the signals of the Block station. The operator inquires if anything has gone wrong. He has been unable to communicate with the English station for more than fifteen minutes, and supposes that the wires have been deranged. Then it is that the loss of the rear car is discovered. While the trainmen and passengers discuss the matter, a sound from the tunnel reaches their ears; a roar resembling a series of dynamite explosions. "The tunnel has caved in!" exclaimed the conductor. "Get aboard, for your lives!" A rush is made for the train, and in half a minute it pulls away from the mouth of the tunnel at top speed. From the rear car the tunnel is visible. The train is five hundred yards away when the waters burst from the mouth of the tunnel. Loosed from the confining walls, the gigantic column subsides in height, spreading on either side of the tracks. It inundates a vast area of the low country surrounding the station. Through the employment of the block system, but one train in each direction is permitted to enter the tunnel at the same time. A partition wall bisects the tunnel into 'parallel sections, each containing a single track. The left-hand section, on which are east-bound tracks, is the one in which the telegraph wires run. The explosion wrecks the walls of the tunnel and breaks the wires. The only explanation that can be offered is that the compressed air cylinder on the car exploded. On each of the tunnel cars a compressed air apparatus is attached, to insure against the trains being stalled in the tunnel in the event of the electric motor giving out. Nevins experiences no difficulty in losing himself in the crowd when the train reaches Calais. He goes at once to a cheap furnished room which he has previously engaged. He still wears the attire of a train hand. Once in his room he sinks upon the bed, his mind and body thoroughly fatigued by the strain that has been placed upon them. For more than an hour he is motionless; then his reserve gradually returns.