yond Laurel Canyon, the
stranger abruptly left the main highway and started up a narrow
private road to the crest of one of the lonely hills. Gordon slowly
gained in the next two miles. When the road ended in a winding
gravelled driveway into the grounds of what was apparently a private
estate, the roadster was scarcely a dozen yards behind.

The stranger's features as he stood there stiffly erect in the vivid
glare of the roadster's headlights were still as devoid of all
expression as ever. The only things that really seemed alive in that
masque of a face were the two eyes, glowing eery blue-green fire like
twin entities of alien evil.

Gordon wasted no time in verbal sparring. He motioned briefly to Leah
Keith's rigid form in the front seat of the sedan.

"Miss Keith is returning to Hollywood with me," he said curtly. "Will
you let her go peaceably, or shall I--?" He left the question
unfinished, but its threat was obvious.

"Or shall you do what?" asked the stranger quietly. There was an oddly
metallic ring in his low even tones. His words were so precisely
clipped that they suggested some origin more mechanical than human.

"Or shall I take Miss Keith with me by force?" Gordon flared angrily.

"You can try to take the lady by force--if you wish." There was an
unmistakable jeering note in the metallic tones.

The taunt was the last thing needed to unleash Gordon's volatile
temper. He stepped forward and swung a hard left hook for that
expressionless masque of a face. But the blow never landed. The
stranger dodged with uncanny swiftness. His answering gesture seemed
merely the gentlest possible push with an outstretched hand, yet
Gordon was sent reeling backward a full dozen steps by the terrific
force of that apparently gentle blow.

* * * * *

Recovering himself, Gordon grimly returned to the attack. The stranger
again flung out one hand in the contemptuous gesture with which one
would brush away a troublesome fly, but this time Gordon was more
cautious. He neatly dodged the stranger's blow, then swung a vicious
right squarely for his adversary's unprotected jaw.

The blow smashed solidly home with all of Gordon's weight behind it.
The stranger's jaw buckled and gave beneath that shattering impact.
Then abruptly his entire face crumpled into distorted ruin. Gordon
staggered back a step in sheer horror at the gruesome result of his
blow.

The stranger flung a hand up to hi