are willing
to follow me, I'll lead you. It means death. I don't know what they're
waiting for. But--are you willing to follow me?"

"We'll follow you, sir"--after a pause, during which Dick read in
their eyes the desire to humor a crazy man. "We'll follow to hell,
sir--if that gang's really there."

"Take your arms, then!" Dick pointed to the stacked rifles.

A minute later the twenty-odd Marines, forming an open line that
extended from one side of the clearing to the other, were on their way
toward the headquarters of the gang. And Dick, leading them, though
his head was reeling, felt as if his own reason was slipping from him.
Had he only dreamed all this? Was it possible that the headquarters of
the Invisible Emperor existed on this desolate prairie? If it was
true, why had they suddenly become silent, inert? Why had they not
long ago wiped out these few Marines? And the gale--was it now
sweeping northward on its mission of destruction?

* * * * *

Half an hour passed. Then the brown patches of the foundations came
into view upon the open ground. Here were the hangers, here was the
central building with the Emperor's headquarters. And nothing was
visible, nothing stirred, yet at any moment Dick expected the rattle
of machine-gun bullets or some more terrific method of destruction.

"Halt!" The line stood still. "I am going forward ahead or you. You'll
follow at a distance of twenty paces. When you see me stop, feel for
the door in the wall, and if I disappear, follow me. You understand?"

The Marines assented cheerfully. No harm in humoring this poor devil
of an officer who had crashed and lost his wits. Like Luke Evans,
shambling up through the line to Dick's side. Dick advanced. At any
moment now the concentrated fire of the Emperor's men should blast
them all to smithereens. Nothing happened.

And it was no dream, for Dick's outstretched hand encountered the
exterior wall of the building. He had gauged his way accurately, too,
for a step or two brought him to the door. He stepped inside. He was
inside the private door that led to the Emperor's quarters, through
which he had passed with Fredegonde, Hargreaves, and Luke Evans in
their flight. It had been broken down, contrary to the girl's
predictions, and the deserted passage within was perfectly visible to
them all.

Stupefied, the Marines bumped and jostled with each other as they
crowded in. If they had been anything b