by the shaking up. Blindly, dizzily we climbed up the ladder,
scrambled out on the platform. Solid footing again! As Brice loosed
the ladder and pulled it up, there was a snap. The last cable had
gone! The cell shot down to earth with a speed that must have reduced
it to a powder. Foulet and I stared after it, dazed, unbelieving.
Brice's whisper hissed in our ears.

"Listen carefully," he gripped our shoulders. "I'm not mad. They shot
the stuff into me, but I found an antidote in Semple's office and used
it right away. Now listen to me! Our plane is over there," he pointed
across the platform. "It's all ready to take off. They think they're
sending me off on an errand for them at dawn. It's ready for a long
trip. Go there; get in; and if any one questions you tell them it's
orders. They won't, though. No one gives orders here but Fraser."
Brice nodded toward a dark heap beside the trap-door.

"You killed him?" asked Foulet.

"Stunned him," said Brice. "He may come to at any moment and if he
does--"

"Suppose we bind him and take him in the plane?" I suggested.

Brice shook his head. "Leave him here. It's safer. Now go. Get in the
plane and take off--"

"And not wait for you?" I gasped, "You're crazy--"

"I'll be there. You can pick me up later. There's no time to
explain--but you'll know. Take off; then circle around and come back.
But watch out!" He gave us both a shove toward the plane, the dim
shadow of which we could see across the platform.

We took a step toward it, and then turned back. How could we go
without Brice? But he had vanished. And in the shadow of the trap door
Fraser groaned.

We waited no longer. To hesitate was to court death. Deliberately, as
if we were acting under orders, we walked toward the plane. As Brice
had said, it was in readiness. Evidently he was to have started at
once. We climbed in, our hearts in our throats. A mechanic stepped
forward. The propeller roared. But, above the roar of the propeller we
heard a yell of fury--and Fraser, dazed and reeling, came stumbling
across the platform toward us!

* * * * *

Foulet took the controls. The plane taxied across the platform,
swooped into space. But it was not till it had risen and steadied that
I realized the complete idiocy of our forlorn hope of escape. What
fools we were! And Brice--Brice must, in truth, be mad! How could we
get away? How could we ever escape the terrific power of the magnetic