panting, human voice. And in a chance, partial
lull I heard it now plainly.

It was Larry's voice!

CHAPTER XXI

_The Fight in the Power House_

I found the narrow aperture and stood peering down into darkness.
Migul crowded behind me. The red beams of its eyes went down into the
pit, and by their faint illumination I saw the heads of Larry and a
girl, swimming twenty feet below. The girl's dark hair floated out
like black seaweed in the water.

"The Princess and the strange man!" exclaimed Migul.

I called, "Larry! Larry!"

His labored voice came up. "George? Thank God! Get us--out of here.
Almost--gone, George!"

I found my wits: "Then keep quiet! Don't talk. Save your strength.
I'll get you out!"

But how? I could see that they were almost spent, for they were
swimming with labored, inefficient strokes--Larry using most of his
strength to hold up the exhausted girl. We had not a moment to spare.
I wildly contemplated tearing my garments to make a rope.

But Migul pushed me away. "I will bring them. Stand back."

The Robot had opened its metal side and drawn forth a flexible wire
with a foot-long hook fastened to it. The wire came smoothly out as
though unrolling from a drum.

It leaned into the aperture and called down to Larry. "Fasten this
around the Princess. Be careful not to harm her. Put it under her
arms."

I saw that there was an eyelet on the wire into which the hook could
be inserted to make a loop.

"Under her arms," Migul called. "She will have to hold to the hook
with her hands or the wire will cut into her. Has she the strength?"

Larry floundered as he adjusted the wire. Tina gasped. "I--have the
strength."

The Robot braced itself, spreading its knees against the aperture with
its body leaning forward.

"Ready?" it called.

"Yes," came Larry's voice.

* * * * *

Migul's finger pressed a button at the base of its neck, and with the
smooth power of machinery the wire cable rolled into its side. Tina
came up; Migul gripped her and pulled her through the aperture; laid
her gently on the catwalk. I unfastened the hook, and soon Migul had
Larry up with us.

The Robot stood aside, with its work done, silently regarding us. I
need not detail this reunion of Larry and me there on the spray-swept
catwalk, clinging to the side of the great dam with the foaming Hudson
beneath us. Larry and Tina were not injured, and presently their
strength partially