matter. Immediately the door was slid back on its runners, McCarthy seized
the astonished operator by the collar.

"Come out of that, you scum of the earth!" he roared. "Come out of that
and tell me why you don't stop for your signals!"

[Illustration: McCarthy stumped down a flight of stairs.]

"I ain't seen no signals!" gasped the elevator boy.

Some one punched the button, but the little, round, annunciator disk in
the car failed to illuminate.

"I wonder if there's anything in order in this miserable hole!" snarled
McCarthy.

"The lights is gone out," volunteered the boy; and indeed for the first
time the men now crowding into the car noticed that the incandescents were
dead.

While McCarthy stormed out to spread abroad impartial threats against
two public utility concerns for interfering with his business, Percy
Darrow, his curiosity aroused, interviewed the janitor. Under that
functionary's guidance he examined the points of entrance for the
different wires used for lighting and communication; looked over the
private-bell installations, and ascended again to the corridor,
abstractedly dusting his fingers. There he found a group of the
building's tenants, among whom he distinguished Doctor Knox.

"Same complaint, I suppose--no phones, no lights, no bells," he