in the skin around the eyesocket, and tearing the film over the glass!

* * * * *

Now there were three things about the lithe, invisible body that the
Arvanians could see: the crumpled papers, a slowly drying patch of blood
that moved shoulder high in the air, and a blood-rimmed, ice-gray eye
that glared defiance at them from apparently untenanted atmosphere.

Then came what seemed must be the end. Soyo appeared in the pantry
doorway with a machine gun.

"Everybody to the end of the kitchen by the window!" he cried. "To the
devil with silence--we'll spray this room with lead, and let the sound
of shots bring what consequences it may!"

The men scattered. The machine gun muzzle swept toward the place where
the eye, the papers, and the blood spot were to be seen.

That spot was now at one end of the great kitchen range on which a few
copper pots simmered over white-hot electric burners. At the other end
of the range, in the end wall of the kitchen, was a second window. It
was small, less than a yard square, and had evidently been punched
through the wall as an afterthought to carry off some of the heat of the
huge stove.

Soyo's face twisted exultantly. The machine gun belched flame. Chasing
relentlessly after the dodging, shifting blood spot, a line of holes
appeared in the wall following instantly on the tap--tap--tap of the
gun.

Eye and papers and blood spot appeared to float through the air. One of
the copper pots on the range flew off onto the floor. The glass of the
small ventilating window smashed to bits. In the jagged frame its broken
edges presented, the Arvanians saw for a flashing instant the seared,
blistered soles of a pair of human feet.

"Outside!" bawled Kori. "He jumped onto the range and dove through the
window! After him!"

* * * * *

After precious seconds had been wasted, the rear door was unchained and
wrenched open. The Arvanians, swords and guns drawn, raced out to the
rear yard.

His Excellency's town car, that had been standing in front of the open
garage doors, leaped into life. With motor roaring wide open, it tore
toward the Arvanians, some of whom leaped aside and some of whom were
hurled to right and left by the heavy fenders....

Startled people on Sixteenth Street saw a great town car swaying down
the asphalt seemingly guided by no hand other than that of fate; some
said afterward they saw a single eye gleamin