but he had seen nothing. Probably a fantasy of his
overworked brain, or only the surf breaking against the sea wall. He
turned his attention to the girl.

* * * * *

She was moaning and tossing her head, returning painfully to
consciousness. He straightened her limbs and placed his folded coat
under the restless head, noting with alarm that vicious red welts
marred the whiteness of her arms and shoulders. It was as if she had
been beaten cruelly; those marks could never have resulted from her
fall. Poor kid. Subject to fits of some sort, he presumed. She was a
good looker, too, and no mistake. He smoothed back the rumpled mass of
golden hair and studied her features. They were vaguely familiar.

Then she opened her eyes. Stark terror looked out from their
ultra-marine depths, and her lips quivered as if she were about to
cry. He raised her to a more comfortable position and supported her
with an encircling arm. She did cry a little, like a frightened child.
Then, with startling abruptness, she sprang to her feet.

"Where is it?" she demanded.

"Where's what?" Eddie was on his feet, peering in all directions. He
remembered the queer sounds he had heard or imagined.

"I--I don't know." The girl passed a trembling hand before her eyes as
if to wipe away some horrifying vision. "Perhaps it's my imagination,
but I felt--it was just as real--one of father's iron monsters.
Beating me; bending me. I'd have snapped in a moment. But nothing was
there. I--I'm afraid...."

Eddie caught her as she swayed on her feet. "There now," he said
soothingly, "you're all right, Miss Shelton. It's gone now, whatever
it was." Iron monsters! In a flash it had come to him that this girl
he held in his arms was Lina Shelton, daughter of the robot wizard. No
wonder she was afflicted with hallucinations! But those bruises were
real, as was the forcible twisting of her lithe young body. And he
_had_ heard something.

* * * * *

"You know me?" The girl was calmer now and faced him with a surprised
look.

"Yes, Miss Shelton. At least I recognize you from the pictures.
Society page, you know. And I'm Edward Vail--Eddie for short--on
vacation and at your service."

The girl smiled wanly. "You know of father's break with Universal
Electric? Of his private experiments?"

"I heard of the scrap and of how he walked out on the outfit, but
nothing further." Eddie thought grimly of h