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Rh into the hallway, and Franklin heard him ascending the stairs swiftly.

"What's to be done next?" the young electrician asked himself several times.

It did not take him long to answer the question. Now he had once embarked upon his perilous enterprise, he determined to go through with it to the finish.

Accordingly, no sooner had he heard Montague Smith unlock the door and enter Mrs. Bliss's apartment than he entered the hallway and crept noiselessly up the stairs after the man.

Montague Smith had closed the door behind him, evidently that he might not be disturbed by the servant girl, who was supposed to be in the kitchen preparing dinner. But by stepping close to the barrier, and placing his ear to the keyhole, Franklin readily overheard what was said inside.

"Look out for that battery!" he heard Mrs. Bliss cry in alarm. "You will knock it from the stand if you are not careful."

"Confound the thing," returned Montague Smith. "What is it, anyhow?"

"It is a medical battery Wilbur constructed for me years ago. Poor Wilbur! Oh, how could you have the heart to—to kill him?"

"There, let us talk of something else, Mrs. Bliss," returned the part owner of the battery works. "I want to know vhat you have done with the papers your brother Wilbur left with you."