As the engineer gazed off at it, Del Mar came up, unseen, behind him and stood there, also watching the submarine, fascinated.

Just then behind him Del Mar heard us pursuing.  He looked about as we ran toward him and saw that we had formed a wide circle, with the men down the hill, that almost completely surrounded him.  There was no chance for escape.  It was hopeless.

But it was not Del Mar’s nature to give up.  He gave one last glance about.  There was the trolley car that had been converted into a cable way.  It offered just one chance in a thousand.  Suddenly his face assumed an air of desperate determination.

He sprang toward the engineer and grappled with him, seeking to wrest the axe from his hand.  Every second counted.  Our circle was now narrowing down and closing in on him.

Del Mar managed to knock out the engineer, taken by surprise, just as our men fired a volley.  In the struggle, Del Mar was unharmed.  Instead he just managed to get the axe.

An instant later a leap landed him on the cable car.  With a blow of the axe he cut the cable.  The car began to move slowly down the hill on the grade.

Some of the men were down below in its path.  But the onrushing cable car was too much for them.  They could only leap aside to save themselves.

On down the incline, gathering momentum every second, the car dashed, Del Mar swaying crazily but keeping his footing.  We followed as fast as we could, but it was useless.

Out on the wharf it sped at a terrific pace.  At the end it literally catapulted itself into the water, crashing from the end of the pier.  As it did so, Del Mar gave a flying leap out into the harbor, struck the water with a clean dive and disappeared.

On down the hill we hurried.  There in the water was Del Mar swimming rapidly.  Almost before we knew it, we saw him raise his hand and signal, shouting.

There only a few yards away was the periscope of a submarine.  As we watched, we could see that it had seen him, had turned in his direction.  Would they get him?

We watched, fascinated.  Some of our men fired, as accurately as they could at a figure bobbing so uncertainly on the water.

Meanwhile the submarine approached closer and rose a bit so that the hatchway cleared the waves.  It opened.  One of the foreign agents assisted Del Mar in.

He had escaped at last!

. . . . . . .

It was most heart-breaking to have had Del Mar so nearly in our grasp and then to have lost him.  We looked from one to another, in despair.

Only Arnold, in his disguise as a hermit, seemed undiscouraged.  Suddenly he turned to Woodward.

“What time is it?” he asked eagerly.

“A little past noon.”

“The Kennedy wireless torpedo!” he exclaimed.  “It arrived to-day.  Burnside is trying it out.”