he
himself sat quite still.

* * * * *

Lambert knew that the sleuths thought he was stark mad. He was aware
of the fact that he had but a few hours in which to save the girl who
had come at his cry to help him, who had loved him and whom he loved,
only to be torn into some place unknown by the forces which were
released in his experiment. And he knew he would rather die with her
than live without her.

He labored feverishly, though he tried to keep his brain calm in order
to win. His notes helped him up to a certain point, but when he had
made the final touches he had not had time to bring the data up to the
moment, being eager to test out his apparatus. It was while testing
that the awful event had occurred and he had seen Madge Crawford
disappear before his very eyes.

Her eyes, large and frightened, burned in his mind.

The deaf mute, Felix, a small, spare man of about fifty, sent the
professor some food and coffee through one of the sleuths. Lambert
swallowed the coffee, but waved away the rest, impatiently. Phillips,
watching his suspect constantly, was served a light supper at the end
of the afternoon.

There seemed to be a million wires to be touched, tested, and various
strange apparatus. Several times, later on in the evening. Lambert
threw the big switch with an air of expectancy, but little happened.
Then Lambert would go to work again, testing, testing--adjusting this
and that till Phillips swore under his breath.

"Only an hour more, professor," said Phillips, who was bored to death
and cramped from trying to obey the professor's orders to keep still.
A circle of cigarette-ends surrounded the sleuth.

"Only an hour," agreed Lambert. "Will you please be quiet, my man?
This is a matter of my fiancee's life or death."

Phillips was somewhat disgruntled, for he felt he had done Lambert
quite a favor in allowing him to remain in the laboratory for so long,
to prove his story.

"I wish Doctor Morgan were here; I ought to have sent for him, I
suppose," said Lambert, a few minutes later. "Will you allow me to get
him? I cannot seem to perfect this last stage."

"No time, now," declared Phillips. "I said till midnight."

It was obvious to Lambert that the detective had become certain during
the course of the evening that the scientist was mad. The ceaseless
fiddling and the lack of results or even spectacular sights had
convinced Phillips that he had to do with a cran