He understood thoroughly why he had been put in an asylum, and it enraged him to think that by this course his enemies had obtained a great advantage over him.

No matter what he might say, it was only necessary to point to the fact that he was in a lunatic asylum, or that he had just come out of one, to make his utterances of no value.
But to remain in confinement did not suit him at all, and, after three days' residence in the institution in which he had been placed, he escaped and made his way to a piece of woods about two miles from Sardis, where, early that year, he had built himself a rude shelter, from which he might go forth at night and study, so far as he should be able, the operations in the Works of Roland Clewe.

Having safely reached his retreat, he lost no time in sallying forth to spy out what was going on at Sardis.
He was cunning and wary, and a man of infinite resource.

It was not long before he found out that the polar discovery had not been announced, but he also discovered from listening to the conversations of some of the workmen in the village, which he frequently visited in a guise very unlike his ordinary appearance, that something extraordinary had taken place in the Sardis Works, of which he had never heard.

A great shaft had been sunk, the people said, by accident; Mr.Clewe had gone down it in a car, and it had taken him nearly three hours to get to the bottom.
Nobody yet knew what he had discovered, but it was supposed to be something very wonderful.
The night after Rovinski heard this surprising news he was in the building which had contained the automatic shell.