n, resigning Orme
entirely to Maku's care, and clucking strangely, opened them.

A glance sufficed. With a cry of disappointment, he tore the papers in
two and threw them to the ground.

He thrust his face close to Orme's. "Where the papers?" he said.

Orme did not reply.

The Japanese who had brought the prospectuses from the tonneau now
stepped to Maku's assistance, for Orme had made a motion of the body
which showed that he was rapidly losing his patience.

"Queek!"

Still no answer.

"Ha!" The exclamation had a ring of triumph. "Mees have um!" He nodded
toward the car where the girl still sat.

"No," exclaimed Orme vehemently. "She has not."

"Mees have um," repeated Arima. "We hunt. We see."

"I tell you she has not," said Orme.

"No believe you." Arima chuckled. "Come, mees."

As Orme twisted himself around, he was enraged to see the Japanese in the
car seize the girl by the arm and drag her to the ground. Once on her
feet, she did not resist, but permitted herself to be led toward the
little group.

Arima advanced a step to meet her. "Give me papers," he said.

"I have no papers," she protested despairingly.

"We search you," said Arima, taking another step toward her and extending
his hands.

It may be that Arima did not intend actually to lay hands on her. His
thought may have been that the threat would induce Orme to tell where the
papers really were. But the effect on Orme was to set him ablaze with
anger.

His swift, indignant purpose seemed to multiply his strength until the
little men who held him were like children in his hands.

A sudden jerk, and he had pulled both his arms free. Maku and the man at
his other side were taken completely by surprise, and before they had
time to recover themselves, Orme had thrown his arms around them and
crushed their heads together with such force that they dropped limp and
unconscious to the ground. They were out of the fight.

At the first sounds of struggle, Arima turned. Now, as Orme charged
toward him, he bent slightly forward, every muscle tense, ready to strike
or trip or twist.

His framework was overlaid by muscles that were like supple steel. Light
and quick, he had a strength that could hardly have been inferred from
his build. And though Orme's outbreak had been sudden, the Japanese was
apparently not in the least disconcerted.

He knew how to turn the rush of the American into a disastrous fall. He
knew how to prod with his bony k