r woods at your right. There you will find path marked "A" on
your map. Put on rucksack and discard suit-case, which, of course,
is to have no identifying marks. Proceed along path to point "B," and
from under board you will find there take box with weapon enclosed.
Box will also contain vacuum searchlight and directions for use of
weapon, exact time, direction, and elevation for discharging same, and
further instructions how to proceed. Act on these to the second. If
interfered with, kill; but kill quietly, so as to avoid giving the
alarm.

I expect every man to do his duty to the full. There will be but one
excuse for failure, and that is death.

The Master.

CHAPTER V

IN THE NIGHT

The night was moonless, dark, warm with the inviting softness of late
spring that holds out promises of romance. Stars wavered and wimpled
in the black waters of the Hudson as a launch put out in silence from
the foot of Twenty-seventh Street.

This launch contained four men. They carried but little baggage; no
more than could be stowed in a rucksack apiece. All were in their old
service uniforms, with long coats over the uniforms to mask them. All
carried vacuum-flashlights in their overcoat pockets, and lethal-gas
pistols, in addition to ordinary revolvers or automatics. And all were
keyed to the top notch of energy, efficiency, eagerness. The Great
Adventure had begun.

In the stern of the swift, twenty-four cylinder launch--a racing
model--sat Captain Alden and Rrisa. The captain wore his aviator's
helmet and his goggles, despite the warmth of the night. To appear in
only his celluloid mask, even at a time like this when darkness would
have hidden him, seemed distasteful to the man. He seemed to want to
hide his misfortune as fully as possible; and, since this did no harm,
the Master let him have his way.

The bow was occupied by the Master and by Major Bohannan, with the
Master at the wheel. He seemed cool, collected, impassive; but
the major, of hotter Celtic blood, could not suppress his fidgety
nervousness.

Intermittently he gnawed at his reddish mustache. A cigar, he felt,
would soothe and quiet him. Cigars, however, were now forbidden. So
were pipes and cigarettes. The Master did not intend to have even
their slight distraction coming between the minds of his men and the
careful, intricate plan before them.

As the racer veered north, up the broad darkness of the Hudson--the
Hudson sparkling with city ill