of the tunnel came the sound of an idling
motor. Drake sprang into action.

"I think," he said, "that we can outplay Lardner at whatever game he's
playing. He must be wounded. Perhaps too badly to fly."

The face of Silvaris, the Fox King, lightened.

"You are a pilot?" he asked.

Puffy chuckled.

"Cinderella can fly the blind spots off a Jap Zero," he said. "Just
strap a pair of wings on him."

They charged toward the mouth of the tunnel. A few hundred feet from
the entrance Drake stopped. He picked up a tommy gun where it had been
dropped by the fleeing gunmen. Going forward more slowly they saw
three men at the entrance, guns pointed into the darkness.

On one knee, Drake fingered the trigger. He picked up a large rock
with his free hand and tossed it ten feet to one side. It struck with
a loud thump. Immediately red fire cut loose around the place where
the rock had hit. Drake brought his finger back lightly against the
trigger and watched coldly as the men went down. They pitched forward
like alley pins, bleeding and screaming with the pain. There was no
time to lose.

Dropping the gun he went forward swiftly, whipping an automatic from
his pocket as he ran. Then, seeing Lardner, he took a head dive into
the deep snow as the vicious crack of lead whizzed over his head. He
rolled over silently coming to his feet with a bound. Lardner, waiting
by the plane, shot again and the lead burned into Drake's shoulder. He
sprang forward as Lardner's foot lifted toward the open door to the
cabin.

Clutching his foot, Drake jerked the man back into the snow with all
his strength and they rolled into a white, seething mass of fury. With
a short, terrifying blow on the chin he snapped the man's head
backward. It twitched queerly and his eyes bulged. Lardner's neck was
twisted to one side, stiff and broken.

"The diamond?" Puffy was at his side. Jim Drake bent over the dying
man, watched his face as it twitched in pain.

"You want the girl," Lardner croaked. "You'll never get her. Even
with the diamond, you'll never...."

His body relaxed suddenly, as though deflated of life. Drake pushed
him back into the drifted snow, a look of disgust in his cold eyes.

* * * * *

"Give me that paste imitation," Drake said. "Perhaps somehow...?"

Silvaris nodded helplessly.

"It's of no use," he groaned. "We tried, but it has no power."

Puffy, a knife in his hand once more, was working slow