for he saw a light in the bungalow, and as he mounted
the steps there were Sing and Professor Maxon just
coming from the living room.

"Von Horn!" exclaimed the professor. "You, then, are not dead;
but where is Virginia? Tell me that she is safe."

"She has been carried away" was the startling answer.
"Your creatures, under the thing you wished to marry
her to, have taken her to Borneo with a band of Malay
and Dyak pirates. I was alone and could do nothing to
prevent them."

"God!" moaned the old man. "Why did I not kill the thing
when it stood within my power to do so. Only last night
he was here beside me, and now it is too late."

"I warned you," said von Horn, coldly.

"I was mad," retorted the professor. "Could you not
see that I was mad? Oh, why did you not stop me?
You were sane enough. You at least might have forced
me to abandon the insane obsession which has overpowered
my reason for all these terrible months. I am sane now,
but it is too late--too late."

"Both you and your daughter could only have interpreted
any such action on my part as instigated by self-
interest, for you both knew that I wanted to make
her my wife," replied the other. "My hands were tied.