nd came. This time I could not be mistaken; it was the sound of
hurried footsteps some distance off and in the direction of the villa.

I was still hidden from the villa by the trees, but across the stream,
some thirty yards away, was an opening from which a view of it could be
had. Leaping the stream I hastened thither, anxious to learn the cause
of the untimely activity. Another moment, and I should have been too
late to see a slight figure, laden with what appeared to be wraps and
other travelling equipment, hurry across the balcony and step into the
large high-speed aerenoid that I had observed there the previous
evening.

It was Zarlah! But what was the reason of this hasty departure at such
an hour? Suddenly a frenzy seized me, and, rushing toward the villa, I
frantically called to her, but it was too late. She had not seen me,
and, before I had taken many steps, the aerenoid rose rapidly to a great
height and disappeared over the trees.

Not a moment was to be lost. Turning, I dashed wildly back toward the
aerenoid I had so foolishly left in concealment. Reaching the stream, I
stumbled over an entanglement of vines and plunged headlong therein,
only to scramble, dripping and bruised, up the opposite bank and
continue my frantic efforts to reach the aerenoid, before Zarlah's car
had disappeared from sight. What her intention was I knew not, but the
early hour, the haste with which she had departed, and the absence of
her brother, all conspired to arouse the fears that had beset me during
the long hours of the night.

Arriving at the aerenoid at last, after a journey that seemed to consume
hours, I jumped in and closed the door. Frantically I seized the lever
that controlled the ascension and, pulling it so that the full repelling
power was instantly exposed, the car bounded high into the air with
terrific force.

The shock hurled me off my feet, but in an instant my eyes were again
fixed upon a mere speck many miles distant, which I knew to be the
aerenoid containing all that life possessed for me. As the car plunged
forward at great speed, the speck disappeared, and I at once realized
that Zarlah had reached a canal, into which she had turned her aerenoid.
It was now impossible for me to see which direction she took, and unless
I arrived at the canal within a few seconds, I felt that all hope of
overtaking her would have vanished, as she would doubtless proceed at
full speed and soon be lost to sight.

Ope