d looped wires.

"Not that fellow who called himself Tako," I whispered.

This one was smaller, no larger than Jane, perhaps. He raised his
arms as though warning us to stop. We stood gazing at him, undecided
whether to retreat or advance. An omnibus carriage coming from St.
Georges stopped at the brow of the hill. Its occupants climbed out
and began shouting at the apparition, at the same time flinging
stones, one of which came bounding past us.

"Hi!" I called. "Stop that! No sense to that!"

* * * * *

Suddenly I heard a rustling of the oleanders at my side. We had no
warning; our attention was wholly upon the apparition and the men by
the carriage on the brow of the hill flinging stones. There was a
rustling; the shadowed oleanders parted and figures leaped upon us!

I recall hearing Don shout, and Jane cry out. Our cycles clattered
to the road. I fired at an oncoming white figure, but missed. The
solid form of a man struck me and I went down, tangled in my wheel.
There was an instant when I was conscious of fighting madly with a
human antagonist. I was conscious of Don fighting, too. Jane stood,
gripped by a man. Four or five of them had leaped upon us.

I had many instant impressions; then as I fought something struck my
head and I faded into insensibility. I must have recovered within a
moment. I was lying on the ground, partly upon a bicycle.

Don was lying near me. White figures of men with Jane in their midst
were standing off the road, partly behind the bushes. They were
holding her, and one of them was swiftly adjusting a network of
wires upon her. Then, as I revived further, I heard shouts; people
were arriving from down the hill. I tried to struggle to my feet,
but fell back.

In the bushes the figures--and the figure of Jane--were turning
silvery; fading into wraiths. They drifted down into the ground.
They were gone.

CHAPTER V

_Into the Enemy Camp_

"But Bob, I won't go back to Government House," Don whispered.
"Lord, we can't do that--get in for theories and questions and plans
to gather a police squad. Every minute counts."

"What can we do?"

"Break away from these fellows--send Uncle Arthur a
message--anything at all; and say we'll be back in half an hour. I
tell you, Jane is gone--they've got her. You saw them take her. By
now probably, they've got her off there in Paget among them. We've
got to do something drastic, and do it now. If the p