“Ah, signore!” he cried, filled with gratification.  “If you only would!  A word from you would secure me a good position.  I can work, that you know—­and I do work.  I will work—­for her sake.”

“I have promised you,” I said briefly.

“And how can I sufficiently thank you?” he cried, standing before me, while in his eyes I thought I detected a strange wild look, such as I had never seen there before.

“You served me well, Olinto,” I replied, “and when I discover real sterling honesty I endeavor to appreciate it.  There is, alas! very little of it in this world.”

“Yes,” he said in a hoarse voice, his manner suddenly changing.  “You have to-night shown me, signore, that you are my friend, and I will, in return, show you that I am yours.”  And suddenly grasping both my hands, he pulled me from the chair in which I was sitting, at the same time asking in a low intense whisper:  “Do you always carry a revolver here in England, as you do in Italy?”

“Yes,” I answered in surprise at his action and his question.  “Why?”

“Because there is danger here,” he answered in the same low earnest tone.  “Get your weapon ready.  You may want it.”

“I don’t understand,” I said, feeling my handy Colt in my back pocket to make sure it was there.

“Forget what I have said—­all—­all that I have told you to-night, sir,” he said.  “I have not explained the whole truth.  You are in peril—­in deadly peril!”

“How?” I exclaimed breathlessly, surprised at his extraordinary change of manner and his evident apprehension lest something should befall me.

“Wait, and you shall see,” he whispered.  “But first tell me, signore, that you will forgive me for the part I have played in this dastardly affair.  I, like yourself, fell innocently into the hands of your enemies.”

“My enemies!  Who are they?”

“They are unknown, and for the present must remain so.  But if you doubt your peril, watch—­” and taking the rusty fire-tongs from the grate he carefully placed them on end in front of the deep old armchair in which I had sat, and then allowed them to fall against the edge of the seat, springing quickly back as he did so.

In an instant a bright blue flash shot through the place, and the irons fell aside, fused and twisted out of all recognition.

I stood aghast, utterly unable for the moment to sufficiently realize how narrowly I had escaped death.

“Look!  See here, behind!” cried the Italian, directing my attention to the back legs of the chair, where, on bending with the lamp, I saw, to my surprise, that two wires were connected, and ran along the floor and out of the window, while concealed beneath the ragged carpet, in front of the chair, was a thin plate of steel, whereon my feet had rested.

Those who had so ingeniously enticed me to that gloomy house of death had connected up the overhead electric light main with that innocent-looking chair, and from some unseen point had been able to switch on a current of sufficient voltage to kill fifty men.