aughing, and she shouted:

"You--let me go, you--hunchback!"

He did let her go; but in a frenzy of rage he hauled back his hand and
struck her in the face. I was upon him the next second. I had him down
on the lawn, punching him; but though at seventeen I was a reasonably
husky lad, the hunchback with his thick, hairy gorilla arms proved
much stronger. He heaved me off. And then the commotion brought Alan.
Without waiting to find out what the trouble was, he jumped on Polter.
Between us, I think we would have beaten him pretty badly. But the
housekeeper summoned Dr. Kent and the fight was over.

* * * * *

Polter left for good within an hour. He did not speak to any of us.
But I saw him as he put his luggage into the taxi which Dr. Kent had
summoned. I was standing silently nearby with Babs and Alan. The look
he flung us as he drove away carried an unmistakable menace--the
promise of vengeance. And I think now that in his warped and twisted
mind he was telling himself that he would some day make Babs regret
that she had laughed at his love.

What happened that night none of us ever knew. Dr. Kent worked late in
his laboratory; he was there when Alan and Babs and the housekeeper
went to bed. He had written a note to Alan; it was found on his desk
in a corner of the laboratory next morning, addressed in care of the
family lawyer to be given Alan in the event his father died. It said
very little. Described a tiny fragment of gold quartz rock the size
of a walnut which would be found under the giant microscope in the
laboratory; and told Alan to give it to the American Scientific
Society to be guarded and watched very carefully.

This note was found, but Dr. Kent had vanished! There had been a
midnight marauder. The laboratory was on the lower floor of the house.
Through one of its open windows, so the police said, an intruder had
entered. There was evidence of a struggle, but it must have been
short, and neither Babs, Alan, the housekeeper nor any of the
neighbors heard anything amiss. And the fragment of golden quartz was
gone!

The police investigation came to nothing. Polter was found in New
York. He withstood the police questions. There was nothing except
suspicion upon which he could be held, and he was finally released.
Immediately, he disappeared.

Neither Alan, Babs nor I saw Polter again. Dr. Kent had never been
heard from to this day, four years later when I flew to join