e emerge upon an open
space upon which stood a slender round tower of considerable height.

John stopped at the edge of the pines and saw the figure disappear
within the tower, upon the summit of which something presently began to
flash and crackle. He caught his breath and the blood leaped fiercely
through his veins. He knew that the tower was a wireless signal station
and that it was talking to another somewhere. It sent, too, as he well
knew, through the velvety blue of the night the message that
Mademoiselle Julie Lannes, Suzanne, her maid, and John Scott, the
American, were in the village of Obenstein where they could be taken.

He cursed himself for a fool, thrice a fool! Why had he not understood
long before? Why had he not seen that so many coincidences could not be
the result of chance? Only design and skill could have brought them
about! Who had disabled the automobile in that flight with Carstairs and
Wharton from the Germans? Who had sought to delay Lannes until he could
be caught by the enemy? Who was the mysterious man in the aeroplane who
had wounded Philip, who had led John from the chateau under the very
rifles of the waiting marksmen, and who had been responsible for Julie's
capture at Chastel? That letter, purporting to be from Philip, and
directing her to come to Chastel, was surely a forgery!

These and all the other details crashed upon him with cumulative force,
and he was so mad with fury that he thought his heart would burst with
the surging blood. Why had the man worked with such energy and such
cruel persistence against him? But his wonder quickly passed, because
the reason did not matter now. Instead he put his finger on the trigger
of the automatic and waited.

The wireless flashed and crackled for five minutes, then five minutes of
silence and the figure of Weber reappeared at the base of the tower. He
lingered there for a little space looking warily about him, before he
began the descent of the mountain, and John quietly withdrew further
into the pines. Weber presently crossed the open space, entering the
forest, and John, noiseless, retreated before him.

Thus they proceeded down the mountain until the wireless tower was left
several hundred yards behind and they were buried deep in the pine
forest. Then John stepped suddenly into the road not twenty yards before
the Alsatian and leveling his automatic said sharply:

"Hands up, Weber!"

Weber started violently and slowly raised his