wedding. Her lover was present at the time, and was nearly killed trying
to protect her. Later he returned to help her escape from the Chateau
Morriere. They succeeded in getting away.

"But the baron's guards tracked them down and murdered them both two
days later. And Gustav Jerbette gained his first renown--he was then but
a young student--when he immortalized them by painting his famous
picture, 'Elaine Duchard's Escape'."

"And now Elaine--"

* * * * *

The old man straightened wearily.

"Our Elaine will die," he said. "Her mind will be wiped out when the
Morriere pikes stab through my ancestor's body."

"There must be some way of calling her back--"

"If there is, I do not know it." He shook his head. "No. There is
nothing we can do."

"We can try!"

Mark's voice rang out like the clang of a great iron bell, echoing with
grim resolve. His tanned jaw jutted hard with determination. His eyes
flashed brown fire.

Elaine's father let his hands fall in a hopeless gesture.

"What is there to try, my boy? Elaine's mind is gone, back a hundred and
fifty years into the past. Her body lies unconscious in a hospital. What
can we do?"

A savage, humorless smile played over the other's lips.

"Earlier this evening you said I was a man of action," he told the
savant tautly. "You said I knew how to handle things I knew about. Well,
I think it's time for action. Real action!"

"But what action can we take? What can--"

"Who's responsible for what's happened to Elaine?"

"Responsible? Adrian Vance is responsible, of course. There is too much
evidence for it to be coincidence--"

"Right!" Mark's eyes were black with rage. "That snake planned this. He
said he'd get revenge. This"--he gestured toward the mirror--"is his way
of doing it!"

"All this is rather obvious," the scientist commented wearily. "But the
fact that Vance is guilty of this atrocity does us no good. Nor does it
help Elaine--"

"But it will!"

"It will? How?"

The younger man hunched forward tensely.

"We're going to catch that devil and strangle an answer out of him!" he
grated. "We're going to make him tell us how to bring Elaine safely back
to 1942!"

"And if he does not know how? If he cannot help us?"

"That'll be too bad. Because then we'll just keep on strangling him." He
laughed harshly. "Oh, yes. Vance may win. We may not be able to save
Elaine. But"--and his face was terrible to see--"Vance cer