. Now, what do we do with you? I give you your
choice. If we take you with us, you will be held very secretly as a
prisoner until the truth of the information you have given us can be
proven. And if your slaves have all been freed, then I suppose you
will be tried...."

* * * * *

The Master was drawn and haggard. He looked very, very old and beaten.

"I--I would prefer," he said dully, "that you did not tell where I am,
and that you go away and leave me here. I--I may have some subjects
who will search for me, and--they may discover me here.... But I am
beaten, Senor. You know that you have won."

Bell swung up on the wing of the plane. He explored about in the
cabin. He came back.

"There are emergency supplies," he said coldly. "We will leave them
with you, with such things as may be useful to allow you to hope as
long as possible. I do not think you will ever be found here."

"I--prefer it, Senor," said The Master dully. "I--I will catch
fish...."

Jamison helped put the packages ashore. The Master shivered. Bell
stripped off his coat and put it on top of the heap of packages. The
Master did not stir. Bell laid a revolver on top of his coat. He went
out to the plane and started the motors. The Master watched
apathetically as the big seaplane pulled clumsily out of the little
cove. The rumble of the engines became a mighty roar. It started
forward with a rush, skimmed the water for two hundred yards or so,
and suddenly lifted clear to go floating away through the air toward
the north.

* * * * *

Paula was the only one who looked back.

"He's crying," she said uncomfortably.

"It isn't fear," said Bell quietly. "It's grief at the loss of his
ambition. It may not seem so to you two, but I believe he meant all
that stuff he told me. He was probably really aiming, in his own way,
for an improved world for men to live in."

The plane roared on. Presently Bell said shortly:

"That stuff he has won't last indefinitely. I'm glad I left him that
revolver."

Jamison stirred suddenly. He dug down in his pocket and fished out a
cigar.

"Since I feel that I may live long enough to finish smoking this," he
observed dryly, "I think I'll light it. I haven't felt that I had
twenty minutes of life ahead of me for a long time, now. A sense of
economy made me smoke cigarettes. It wouldn't be so much waste if you
left half a cigarette behind you when you