ther, it
will be so much of happiness. And when you are--The Master's victim,
we will let the little boat sink, and sink with it. I do not wish to
live without you, Charles, and you do not wish to live as his slave."

Bell gave utterance to a sudden laugh that was like a bark. His hands
came out from under his coat. Dangling from each one was a small,
pear-shaped globule of metal. A staff projected upward from each one,
and he held those staffs in his writhing hands. About each wrist was a
tiny loop of cord that went down to a pin at the base of the staffs.

"Close to me, Paula," he said coldly. She clung to his arm. He moved
forward, with half-a-dozen revolver muzzles pointed at his breast.

"If one of you damned fools fires," he said harshly, "I'll let go.
When I let go--these are Mills grenades, and they go off in three
seconds after they leave the hand. Stand still!"

* * * * *

There was a terrible, frozen silence. Then a movement from behind
Bell. Jamison was rising with a grunt.

"Some day, Bell," he observed coolly, "I'll be on to all of your
curves. This is the best one yet. But you're likely to let go at any
second, aren't you?"

"Like hell!" raged Bell. "I drank some of your poison," he snarled at
The Master. "Yes! I was fool enough to do it! But I took what measures
any man will take who finds he's swallowed poison. I got it out of my
stomach at once. And if you or one of these deputies tries to
move...."

Ribiera had blanched to a pasty gray. The Master was frozen. But Bell
saw Ribiera's eyes move in swift calculation. There was a solid wall
behind The Master. It seemed as if the greenhouse were a sort of
passageway between two larger structures. And there was a door almost
immediately behind Ribiera. Ribiera glanced right--left--

He flung himself through that door. He knew the secret of The Master's
power. He was The Master's appointed successor. If The Master and all
his deputies died, Ribiera....

But Bell snapped into action like a bent spring released. His arm shot
forward. A grenade went hurtling through the door through which
Ribiera had fled. There was an instantaneous, terrific explosion. The
solid wall shook and shivered and, with a vast deliberation,
collapsed. The greenhouse was full of crushed plaster dust. Panes of
glass shivered....

But Bell was upon The Master. He had struck the little man down and
stood over him, his remaining automatic replaci