he
headwarp, Staff and Iff at his heels.

From the other side of the dock a shadow uplifted itself, swiftly and
silently as a wraith, and stood swaying as it saluted them with profound
courtesy.

"Gennelmen," it said thickly, "I bidsh you welcome t' Wrecksh Island."

With this it slumped incontinently back into a motor-boat which lay
moored in the shadow of the dock; and a wild, ecstatic snore rang out
upon the calm night air.

"Thet's Eph Clover," said Bascom; "him 'nd his wife's caretakers here.
He's drunker 'n a b'iled owl," added the boatbuilder lest they
misconstrue.

"Cousin Artie seems unfortunate in his choice of minions, what?"
commented Iff. "Come along, Staff.... Take care of that souse, will you,
Spelvin? See that he doesn't try to mix in."

They began to run along the narrow, yielding and swaying bridge of
planks.

"He hasn't beaten us out yet," Iff threw over his shoulder. "You keep
back now--like a good child--please. I've got a hunch this is my hour."

The hotel loomed before them, gables grey with moonshine, its long walls
dark save where, toward the middle of the main structure, chinks of
light filtered through a shuttered window, and where at one end an open
door let out a shaft of lamplight upon the shadows....

XVII

HOLOCAUST

For a period of perhaps twenty seconds the man and the girl remained
moveless, eyeing one another; she on the floor, pale, stunned and
pitiful, for the instant bereft of every sense save that of terror; he
in the doorway, alert, fully the master of his concentrated faculties,
swayed by two emotions only--a malignant temper bred of the night's
succession of reverses capped by the drunkenness of his caretaker, and
an equally malignant sense of triumph that he had returned in time to
crush the girl's attempt to escape.

He threw the door wide open and took a step into the room, putting away
his pistol.

"So--" he began in a cutting voice.

But his movement had acted as the shock needed to rouse the girl out of
her stupor of despair. With a cry she gathered herself together and
jumped to her feet. He put forth a hand as if to catch her, and she
leaped back. Her skirts swept the lamp on the floor and overturned it
with a splintering crash. Instinctively she sprang away--in the nick of
time.

She caught a look of surprise and fright in the eyes of the man as they
glared past her in the ghastly glow of the flickering wick, and took
advantage of this mom