Young Man
located Reoh's house. As he approached he noticed the figure of a man
lounging against a further corner of the building; the figure
disappeared almost as soon as he saw it.

It was a trivial incident, but, somehow, to the Very Young Man, it held
something in it of impending danger. He did not knock on the outer door,
but finding it partly open, he slowly pushed it wider and stepped
quietly into the hallway beyond. He was hardly inside when there came
from within the house a girl's scream--a cry of horror, abruptly
stifled.

For an instant, the Very Young Man stood hesitating. Then he dashed
forward through an open doorway in the direction from which the cry had
seemed to come.

The room into which he burst was Reoh's study; the room he had left only
a few moments before. On the floor, almost across his path, lay the old
man, with the short blade of a sword buried to the hilt in his breast.
In a corner of the room a young Oroid girl stood with her back against
the wall. Her hands were pressed against her mouth; her eyes were wide
with terror. Bending over the body on the floor with a hand at its
armpit, knelt the huge, gray figure of a man. At the sound of the
intruder's entrance he looked up quickly and sprang to his feet.

The Very Young Man saw it was Targo!

CHAPTER XXVI

THE ABDUCTION

When the Very Young Man left them so unceremoniously the Chemist and his
companions continued on their way home, talking earnestly over the
serious turn affairs had taken. Of the three, the Big Business Man
appeared the most perturbed.

"Lylda isn't going to accomplish anything," he said. "It won't work. The
thing has gone too far. It isn't politics any longer; it's a struggle
against us--a hatred and fear of our supernatural powers."

"If we had never come----" began the Doctor.

"It probably would have worked out all right," finished the Big Business
Man. "But since we're here----"

"We could leave," the Doctor suggested.

"It has gone too far; I agree with you," the Chemist said. "Your going
would not help. They would never believe I did not still possess the
magic. And now, without the drugs I might not be able to cope with
affairs. It is a very serious situation."

"And getting worse all the time," added the Big Business Man.

When they arrived at the Chemist's home Loto did not run out to meet
them as the Chemist expected. They called his name, but there was no
answer. Inside the house they