"He is not one of us. Kill him! Kill him! Kill Maxon,
too, and then we shall be as other men, for it is these
men who keep us as we are."

The fellow started forward toward Number Thirteen as he
spoke, and moved by the impulse of imitation the others
came on with him.

"I have spoken fairly to you," said Number Thirteen in
a low voice. "If you cannot understand fairness here
is something you can understand."

Raising the bull whip above his head the young giant
leaped among the advancing brutes and lay about him
with mighty strokes that put to shame the comparatively
feeble blows with which von Horn had been wont to deal
out punishment to the poor, damned creatures of the
court of mystery.

For a moment they stood valiantly before his attack,
but after two had grappled with him and been hurled
headlong to the floor they gave up and rushed incontinently
out into the maelstrom of the screaming tempest.

In the doorway behind him Sing Lee had been standing
waiting the outcome of the encounter and ready to lend
a hand were it required. As the two men turned back
into the professor's room they saw that the wounded
man's eyes were open and upon them. At sight of Number
Thirteen a questioning look came into his eyes.