Thirteen had
lifted Professor Maxon to his bed, and the Chinaman was engaged in
bathing and bandaging the wound that had left the older man
unconscious. The white giant stood beside him watching his every move.
He was trying to understand why sometimes men killed one another and
again defended and nursed. He was curious as to the cause of his own
sudden change in sentiment toward Professor Maxon. At last he gave the
problem up as beyond his powers of solution, and at Sing's command set
about the task of helping to nurse the man whom he considered the
author of his unhappiness and whom a few short minutes before he had
come to kill.

As the two worked over the stricken man their ears were suddenly
assailed by a wild commotion from the direction of the workshop. There
were sounds of battering upon wood, loud growls and roars, mingled with
weird shrieks and screams and the strange, uncanny gibbering of
brainless things.

Sing looked quickly up at his companion.

"Whallee mallee?" he asked.

The giant did not answer. An expression of pain crossed his features,
and he shuddered--but not from fear.

7

THE BULL WHIP

As von Horn and Virginia Maxon walked slowly beneath the dense shadows
of the jungle he again renewed his suit. It would please him more to
have the girl accompany him voluntarily than to be compelled to take
her by force, but take her he would one way or another, and that, this
very night, for all the plans were made and already under way.

"I cannot do it, Doctor von Horn," she had said. "No matter how much
danger I may be in here I cannot desert my father on this lonely isle
with only savage lascars and the terrible monsters of his own creation
surrounding him. Why, it would be little short of murder for us to do
such a thing. I cannot see how you, his most trusted lieutenant, can
even give an instant's consideration to the idea.

"And now that you insist that his mind is sorely affected, it is only
an added reason why I must remain with him to protect him so far as I
am able, from himself and his enemies."

Von Horn did not relish the insinuation in the accent which the girl
put upon the last word.

"It is because I love you so, Virginia," he hastened to urge in
extenuation of his suggested disloyalty. "I cannot see you sacrificed
to his horrible mania. You do not realize the imminence of your peril.
Tomorrow Number Thirteen was to have come to live beneath the same roof
with