rofessor's muffled
voice was heard demanding the wearing apparel, and I groped about and
found it and stuffed it through the bars of the cage.

"Do you need help?" I shouted. There was no response. Staring around
through the thickening vapor of rosium rolling in clouds from the
overturned tank, I heard Miss Barrison's voice calling:

"I can't move! A transparent lady is holding me!"

Blindly I rushed about, arms outstretched, and the next moment struck
the door of the cage so hard that the impact almost knocked me
senseless. Clutching it to steady myself, it suddenly flew open. A
rush of partly visible creatures passed me like a burst of pink
flames, and in the midst, borne swiftly away on the crest of the
outrush, the professor passed like a bolt shot from a catapult; and
his last cry came wafted back to me from the forest as I swayed there,
drunk with the stupefying perfume: "Don't worry! I'm all right!"

I staggered out into the clearer air towards a figure seen dimly
through swirling vapor.

"Are you hurt?" I stammered, clasping Miss Barrison in my arms.

"No--oh no," she said, wringing her hands. "But the professor! I saw
him! I could not scream; I could not move! _They_ had him!"

"I saw him too," I groaned. "There was not one trace of terror on his
face. He was actually smiling."

Overcome at the sublime courage of the man, we wept in each other's
arms.

* * * * *

True to our promise to Professor Farrago, we made the best of our way
northward; and it was not a difficult journey by any means, the voyage
in the launch across Okeechobee being perfectly simple and the trail
to the nearest railroad station but a few easy miles from the
landing-place.

Shocking as had been our experience, dreadful as was the calamity
which had not only robbed me of a life-long friend, but had also
bereaved the entire scientific world, I could not seem to feel that
desperate and hopeless grief which the natural decease of a close
friend might warrant. No; there remained a vague expectancy which so
dominated my sorrow that at moments I became hopeful--nay, sanguine,
that I should one day again behold my beloved superior in the flesh.
There was something so happy in his last smile, something so artlessly
pleased, that I was certain no fear of impending dissolution worried
him as he disappeared into the uncharted depth of the unknown
Everglades.

I think Miss Barrison agreed with me, too. She