gh to spring forward as soon as he
opened it. I was close behind him.

"What----"

"Wait, Jac! Quiet! I just want to see--in case she _is_ doing
something."

He jerked open the door suddenly and bounded through, with me after him.

The corridor was empty. But there was a whirring coming from the
instrument room.

We leaped across the padded corridor. In the instrument room, Ahla the
maid sat at the table with a head-piece clasped to her ears. She was
talking softly but swiftly into the transmitter. In the mirror beside
her I caught a glimpse of the place to which she was talking. A sort of
cave--flickering lights--a crowd of dark figures of Venus men, seemingly
armed.

She must have heard us coming. A sweep of her white arm dashed the
mirror to the floor, smashing it. Then she cast off the head-piece, and
leaping to her feet, faced us, blazing and defiant.

CHAPTER IV

_To the North Pole_

"You stand back! You do not touch me!"

The Venus girl fairly hissed the words. Her eyes were dilated; her white
hair hung in a tumbling, wavy mass over her shoulders. She stood
tense--a frail, girlish figure in a short, grey-cloth mantle, with long
grey stockings beneath.

We were startled. Georg stopped momentarily; then he jumped at her. It
was a false move, for before we could reach her, with a piercing cry,
she was tearing at the instruments on the table; her fingers, with burns
unheeded, ripping the delicate wires, smashing the small mirrors,
flinging everything to the floor.

A few seconds only, but it was enough. She was panting when Georg caught
her by the wrists, and we others gathered around them.

"Ahla!" Elza cried in horror.

I can appreciate the shock to Elza, who had trusted, even loved this
girl.

Dr. Brende stood in confused astonishment, staring at the wreck of the
instrument table. From a naked wire a little black coil of smoke was
coming up. I fumbled about and switched the current out of everything.

We were cut off from all communication with the world. It gave me a
queer feeling--made the small island we were on seem so remote.

Georg was shaking the girl, demanding with whom she had been talking and
why. But she fell into sullen silence, and nothing we could do would
make her break it. It infuriated me, that stubbornness; it was all I
could do to keep from harming her in my efforts to make her talk.

Georg, at last, pulled me away; he led the girl to a couch and sternly
bade he