th him.

"I have spoken fairly to you," said Number Thirteen in a low voice.
"If you cannot understand fairness here is something you can
understand."

Raising the bull whip above his head the young giant leaped among the
advancing brutes and lay about him with mighty strokes that put to
shame the comparatively feeble blows with which von Horn had been wont
to deal out punishment to the poor, damned creatures of the court of
mystery.

For a moment they stood valiantly before his attack, but after two had
grappled with him and been hurled headlong to the floor they gave up
and rushed incontinently out into the maelstrom of the screaming
tempest.

In the doorway behind him Sing Lee had been standing waiting the
outcome of the encounter and ready to lend a hand were it required. As
the two men turned back into the professor's room they saw that the
wounded man's eyes were open and upon them. At sight of Number
Thirteen a questioning look came into his eyes.

"What has happened?" he asked feebly of Sing. "Where is my daughter?
Where is Dr. von Horn? What is this creature doing out of his pen?"

The blow of the parang upon the professor's skull had shocked his
overwrought mind back into the path of sanity. It had left him with a
clear remembrance of the past, other than the recent fight in the
living room--that was a blank--and it had given him a clearer
perspective of the plans he had been entertaining for so long relative
to this soulless creature.

The first thought that sprang to his mind as he saw Number Thirteen
before him was of his mad intention to give his daughter to such a
monstrous thing. With the recollection came a sudden loathing and
hatred of this and the other creatures of his unholy experimentations.

Presently he realized that his questions had not been answered.

"Sing!" he shouted. "Answer me. Where are Virginia and Dr. von Horn?"

"All gonee. Me no know. All gonee. Maybeso allee dead."

"My God!" groaned the stricken man; and then his eyes again falling
upon the silent giant in the doorway, "Out of my sight," he shrieked.
"Out of my sight! Never let me see you again--and to think that I
would have given my only daughter to a soulless thing like you. Away!
Before I go mad and slay you."

Slowly the color mounted to the neck and face of the giant--then
suddenly it receded, leaving him as ashen as death. His great hand
gripped the stock of the bull whip. A single blow was all