reamed again and fled through the
nearest door, locking it. On strode the Automaton, crashing down the
door as if it had been a mere shell.

Meanwhile the emissaries had seized Locke, still unconscious and unable
to resist. Feverishly they began to bind him in the strait-jacket which
they had taken from the ambulance. Then they carried him and flung him
roughly on the floor of the library.

Still screaming, Eva fled to the next room, again bolting the door and
piling furniture frantically to barricade it. Again the Automaton rained
blow after blow on the door. It splintered, and his powerful fist began
breaking and overturning the barricade which the unfortunate girl had
improvised.

Wildly she looked about. Only a closet now offered refuge. The door was
splintered through. She could see the terrible face of the monster.

In the library, Locke, recovering by this time, began flopping and
twisting, spurred by the muffled screams from above-stairs as he worked
with miraculous dexterity to release himself from the strait-jacket.

CHAPTER VI

Locke struggled with superhuman effort to release himself from the
strait-jacket in which he was held prisoner. The throat-straps pressed
against the neck muscles and the strain on the straps could be heard
like pistol-shots as the leather stretched under his prodigous efforts.

With every nerve keyed up and his reflexes answering his keen brain, he
swayed backward and forward, rolled from side to side until his
shoulder-blades were thrown completely out of joint. The pain was
intense, but he summoned every ounce of strength at his command and
finally succeeded in getting one of his arms free by gradually working
his body toward a settee, where, with his elbow on the seat, he pushed
his disjointed arm over his head.

Agony was written all over his face as at last with a final effort he
extricated his arms and was in a position to loosen the straps which
bound them, with his teeth.

Nor was his labor over now. The canvas jacket cut into his flesh and the
buckles bruised his muscles. His body ached with weariness, yet he clung
to his task. Like a thing incarnate he toiled as he realized the danger
that confronted Eva.

Up-stairs, the monster was pursuing Eva. The heavy oaken doors were as
straws to him, and he plunged through them as a mad elephant dashes
through a canebrake. Destruction lay in his wake as he crashed through
the improvised barriers which Eva had constru