it was that made the print--was the
source of the strange excitation!

This took but a second--the interval before another shoe-print formed
in the rug in their direction. Jim gasped something unintelligible and
started to back away; but no sooner did Partridge start to follow
suit, than a compulsion to stand still came over them. Caught where
they were, unable to move, they saw the shoe-prints come towards them.
Slowly, step by step, twelve inches apart, they came, and did not stop
until they were only four or five feet away.

"We'll jump him, if we get the chance!" hissed Jim, never taking his
eyes off the prints.

"Yes," came the answer; but Clee's further words were cut off in the
making by an added compulsion to keep quiet. Were their words
understood? The two men were locked, speechless, where they stood. And
by some creature with a human footprint whom they could not see!

The touch of firm flesh came out of the nothingness of space about
them, to poke and pry all over their bodies. Anger began to take the
place of their fear, as, for some time, impotent of resistance, they
had to submit to the examination given them. They were prodded and
felt like dogs at a show; their breathing and heart action were
carefully listened to; their mouths were opened and their teeth
inspected as if they were horses offered for sale. Both men were
inwardly fuming.

"Dogs!" shouted Clee in his thoughts. "Treating us like dogs, to see
how healthy we are! Does he want us for slaves?"

* * * * *

At last the examination came to a stop, and they saw the shoe-prints
in the rug go over to the black table and remain there, heels toward
them, while various pieces of apparatus were invisibly moved across
the table top. For a moment the compelling will did not seem, to Clee,
to be constraining him as much is it had, and he began to wonder if he
might not have a little control over his body again. Tentatively he
tried to break through the oppressing blanket of foreign will; his
arms and legs moved a little; he succeeded! He caught Jim's eye and
showed him. He thrilled all over at his discovery, and his will to
move measurably increased with his growing confidence that he could.

The toes of the prints were still turned away. He was going to try and
get the man or monster who was making them.

He gestured to Jim, and with a great effort took a step in the
invisible man's direction. A thrill of gladness