hundering noise which the earth re-echoed.
But inside the cabin that tumult was reduced to a not intolerable
bumming sound.

"What'll I do with this devil, Bell?" asked Jamison. "Now that we're
aloft, I confess this grenade makes me nervous. I'm holding it so
tightly my fingers are getting cramped."

"Tie him up," said Bell, without looking. "He'll talk presently."

Movements. The plane flew on, swaying slightly in the way of big
sea-planes everywhere. A williwaw began in the hills ahead and swept
out and set the ship to reeling crazily in its erratic currents. The
Strait vanished and there were tumbled hills below them. Minutes
passed.

"Got him fixed up," said Jamison coolly, "I'll guarantee he won't
break loose. Got any plans, Bell?"

"No time," said Bell. "I haven't had time to make any. The first thing
is to get where his folk will never find us. Then we'll see what we
can do with him."

Paula looked at the now bound figure of The Master. And the little old
man beamed at her.

"He--he's smiling!" said Paula, in a voice that was full of a peculiar
horrified shock.

* * * * *

Bell shrugged. Punta Arenas was all of twenty-five miles behind, and
the earth over which they _flew_ began to take on the shape of an
island. Water appeared beyond it, and innumerable small islands. Bell
began to rack his brain for the infinitesimal scraps of knowledge he
had about this section of the world. It was pitifully scanty. Punta
Arenas was the southernmost point of the continental mass. All about
it was an archipelago and a maze of waterways, thinly inhabited
everywhere and largely without any inhabitants at all. The only solid
ground between Cape Horn and the Antarctic ice pack was Diego Ramirez
and the South Shetlands....

Nothing to go on. But any sufficiently isolated and desolate spot
would do. Almost anywhere along the southern edge of the continental
islands should serve.

The plane roared on monotonously, while Bell began to wrestle with
another and more serious problem. In three days--two, now--an American
naval vessel would turn up, with scientists and chemists on board. It
was to be doubted whether anything like an overt act would be risked
by that vessel. If all the governments of South America were under The
Master's thumb, then cabled orders from his deputies would race three
navies to the spot. And the government of the United States does not
like to start war, anywhere. C