n there was a sad, low moaning through the surrounding trees;
dense, black clouds obscured the radiant moon; and then with hideous
thunder and vivid flashes of lightning the tempest broke in all its
fury of lashing wind and hurtling deluge. It was the first great storm
of the breaking up of the monsoon, and under the cover of its darkness
Sing Lee scurried through the monster filled campong to the bungalow.
Within he found the young man bathing Professor Maxon's head as he had
directed him to do.

"All gettee out," he said, jerking his thumb in the direction of the
court of mystery. "Eleven devils. Plenty soon come bung'low. What
do?"

Number Thirteen had seen von Horn's extra bull whip hanging upon a peg
in the living room. For answer he stepped into that room and took the
weapon down. Then he returned to the professor's side.

Outside the frightened monsters groped through the blinding rain and
darkness in search of shelter. Each vivid lightning flash, and
bellowing of booming thunder brought responsive cries of rage and
terror from their hideous lips. It was Number Twelve who first spied
the dim light showing through the bungalow's living room window. With
a low guttural to his companions he started toward the building. Up
the low steps to the verandah they crept. Number Twelve peered through
the window. He saw no one within, but there was warmth and dryness.

His little knowledge and lesser reasoning faculties suggested no
thought of a doorway. With a blow he shattered the glass of the
window. Then he forced his body through the narrow aperture. At the
same moment a gust of wind sucking through the broken panes drew open
the door, and as Number Thirteen, warned by the sound of breaking
glass, sprang into the living room he was confronted by the entire
horde of misshapen beings.

His heart went out in pity toward the miserable crew, but he knew that
his life as well as those of the two men in the adjoining room depended
upon the force and skill with which he might handle the grave crisis
which confronted them. He had seen and talked with most of the
creatures when from time to time they had been brought singly into the
workshop that their creator might mitigate the wrong he had done by
training the poor minds with which he had endowed them to reason
intelligently.

A few were hopeless imbeciles, unable to comprehend more than the
rudimentary requirements of filling their bellies when food was p