*

Slavatsky made a move toward the light, and Carnes' gun roared
deafeningly in the confined space. The heavy bullet smashed into the
wall an inch from the dwarf's hand and he started back.

"Open the main door!" ordered Carnes again.

The men stared at one another for a moment and the dwarf's eyes fell.

"Open the door, Frink," he said.

Frink moved over to a lever. He glanced at Slavatsky and a momentary
gleam of intelligence passed between them. Frink raised his hand
toward the lever and Carnes gun roared again and Frink's arm fell limp
from a smashed shoulder.

"Slavatsky," said Carnes sternly, "come here!"

Slowly the dwarf approached.

"Turn around!" said Carnes.

He turned and felt the cold muzzle of Carnes' gun against the back of
his neck.

"Now tell one of your men to open the door," said the detective. "If
he promptly obeys your order, you are safe. If he doesn't, you die."

Slavatsky hesitated for a moment, but the cold muzzle of the automatic
bored into the back of his neck and when he spoke it was in a
quavering whine.

"Open the door, Carson," he whimpered.

There was moment of pause.

"If that door isn't open by the time I count three," said Carnes,
"--as far as Slavatsky is concerned, it's just too bad. I'll have four
shots left--and I'm a dead shot at this range. One! Two!"

His lips framed the word "three" and his fingers were tightening on
the trigger when Carson jumped forward with an oath. He pulled a lever
on the wall and the door swung open. Carnes shouted and through the
opened door came a half dozen marines followed by an officer.

"Tie these men up!" snapped Carnes.

* * * * *

In a trice the six men were securely bound and Frink's bleeding
shoulder was being skilfully treated by two of the marines. Carnes
turned his attention to the unconscious doctor.

He rolled him over on his back and began to chafe his hands. An
officer in a naval uniform came through the door and with a swift
glance around, bent over Dr. Bird. He raised one of the doctor's
eyelids and peered closely at his eye and then sniffed at his breath.

"It's some anesthetic I don't know," he said. "I'll try a stimulant."

He reached in his pocket for a hypodermic, but Carnes interrupted him.

"Earlier in the evening Dr. Bird said they were using lethane," he
said.

"Oh, that new gas the Chemical Warfare Service has discovered," said
the surgeon. "In that case I gues