urbance in the
vicinity.

The Atom Smasher! Jim took heart. Tode could not be far away! He
looked about him, subconsciously trying to discover some implement
that would prove of service to him, but there was nothing that he
could see, not even one of the ray tubes. He looked about uneasily.

Then his eyes fell upon something so singularly out of place that it
looked, for the moment, like some pre-historic weapon. It was the last
thing Jim would have expected to find there--nothing more nor less
than a sporting rifle!

Deer shooting had been one of Tode's pastimes in the old days, and
more than one fat buck had been surreptitiously shot for the benefit
of the larder at the Vanishing Place. There was something almost
pathetic in the sight of that rifle and the fifty cartridges in their
cardboard carton. Perhaps Tode had pictured himself shooting big game
in Atlantis at some period or other. It was a human weakness that for
an instant lessened Jim's hate and horror of the man. It brought him
to a saner view of the situation. Jim had been on the point of losing
his powers of reason. The sight of the rifle restored them.

* * * * *

He turned sharply as he heard a sound in the entrance. Cain was coming
toward him, with many genuflexions, and much stomach wriggling. He
stopped, straightened himself. There was a look of singular
intelligence on the Drilgo's face.

He began chattering, pointing in the direction of Atlantis. Jim could
make nothing of what he was trying to convey.

"Yes, they're there," he said bitterly, "but I don't see how that's
going to help me."

"Oh my poor Lucille!" said Cain unexpectedly.

The words were like a parrot's speech, the intonation so remarkable a
copy of old Parrish's that Jim was flabbergasted. Nevertheless it was
evident that Cain knew he was referring to Lucille.

With a strange, slinking motion he crossed the laboratory and bent
beneath a huge slab of stone, resting on two great hewn rocks. He
emerged, holding in his arms two curious contrivances. He laid them at
Jim's feet.

Jim stared at them, and suddenly understood what they were. They were
two pairs of wings, of the kind the Atlanteans had used when they made
their aerial sortie against the Drilgoes.

Cain picked up one pair and began adjusting it about his body. He made
fluttering movements with his arms.

"You mean that you've learned how to fly, you black imp of Satan?"
shouted Jim.