let alone a bomb or pistol. If we wish them ill, perhaps, that will do
instead."

"Possibly--but don't be such an ass as to wish any one any good!"
Hamar said. "Do your best to carry out the injunctions I have given
you, and we will meet here, this day week, to discuss the tests."




CHAPTER IV

THE TESTS


Seven days later, Hamar again knocked at Curtis's and Kelson's door
and walked in. A faint sigh of relief escaped him.

"I see we are all right so far," he said. "I wondered whether I should
find you both flown, or lying stretched in the icy hands of death.
Have you experimented?"

"We have," Curtis said. "We've done our best. In what way, we prefer
not to say."

"Perhaps there is no need," Hamar replied, eyeing the mantelshelf
which bore ample testimony to a full larder, and glancing at Curtis's
feet which were encased in a pair of new and very shiny boots. (A
handsome overcoat that was hanging on the door also attracted his
attention; but that he had seen before, and concluded that it had been