t for yourself as best you can. Promise, sir!"

"I will,--I do. Forgive me, for I was carried away by--'twas there I
saw--after so many horrible years!" huskily muttered the exile, fairly
cowering there, before his saviour from the whirlpool.

"Enough; bear in mind that the rescue of your loved ones depend on our
efforts. If discovered by yonder snarling beasts, and the machine is
injured,--farewell, all hopes! Now, quiet, and look for Bruno!"

Again the air-ship circled over the valley, in spite of the moonlight
passing wholly unseen and unsuspected by the Aztecs, whose energies were
bent on ferreting out mortal foes, not demons of the upper world.

Waldo leaned farther over the hand-rail as they floated closer to an
excited group of warriors, the central figure being Lord Hua himself,
fiercely denouncing Aztotl and his son, Ixtli, as traitors to the common
welfare, and calling upon all honest braves to mete forth befitting
punishment.

Professor Featherwit caught one name indistinctly; that of the young
Aztec in whose company Bruno had set forth on his ill-starred venture;
and hoping to learn more of importance, he caused the aerostat to hover
directly above that particular group of redskins.

Waldo, never stopping to count the risk he might thus fetch upon them
all, silently lowered the grapnel, by means of the drag-rope, giving
a boyish chuckle as the three-pronged hook descended amidst that
gathering, the sight causing more than one superstitious brave to leap
aside, with cries of amazed affright.

The air-ship gave a sudden swoop, and the grapnel caught Huatzin by
his girdle, jerking him fairly off his feet, and swinging him into air,
pretty much as a youngster might land a writhing fish. But no fish ever
sent forth so wild a screech of mingled rage and terror as split the air
just then.

Although hardly realising what was happening, Professor Featherwit sent
the aeromotor upward with a mighty jerk. The shock proving too much
for that sash, Lord Hua fell back to earth, literally biting the dust,
although he met with no bodily harm beyond sundry bruises.

"Caught a sucker, and--I'll never do it again, uncle!" exploded Waldo,
as he swiftly hauled in his novel fish-line; but he had to take a severe
lecture from the professor before the subject was finally dropped.

And, worse than all else, the air-demon was now the target for both eyes
and arrows, and, perforce, sailed swiftly away into the night.

C