cted to delay his
onslaught. A crouching, desolate figure, she waited for what she knew to
be her end. There was only one barrier left between her and this engine
of destruction. It was only a moment now when she would be a crushed,
mangled mass. With terror in her heart she waited for the thing to crash
through the last remaining barrier, and even now she could hear his
ponderous step as he crossed the room toward the door which would only
momentarily stay his progress. Her lips moved in prayer as she waited
and the dread moments seemed eons to her.

Suddenly she heard a crash, and she could see the panels of sturdy oak
in the door give way as though they were egg-shells. The gigantic fist
of the monster crashed through and she could discern the dim outline of
the enormous head, and the glaring eyes of fire looking toward her. With
a shrill shriek she raised her arms above her head and fell swooning to
the floor just as a pistol-shot rang out.

Locke, disheveled and weak, had released himself from the strait-jacket,
and with the speed of a panther had ascended the stairs. He saw the
monster crashing through the last remaining barrier, and without
hesitation he fired at the thing as he closed in. His one thought was to
delay it or make it swerve in its course momentarily, with the hope that
by some chance Eva might have time to escape. Could he only accomplish
this, he thought his mission successful, regardless of the outcome as
far as he himself was concerned.

He pulled the trigger of his automatic again and again as he rushed
forward. By some strange trick of fate the figure reeled for a second
and one of its arms dropped swinging to its side. The bullet had entered
a joint. Had it in some way deranged the mechanism, causing the
Automaton to turn in its tracks and confront Locke as he charged
forward? Or was some human being concealed in the armored creature and
wounded?

Eva, in her semi-conscious state, saw the mass of metal charge toward
Locke, and closed her eyes so as not to be a witness to his end. She
waited, dumb and helpless with fright, and before her surged the meaning
of this man's great sacrifice for her. In the brief interval she
realized that men of his ilk were few. She realized that her interest in
the young chemist was more than a passing fancy and the truth was driven
home to her in his hour of peril. She closed her eyes and all before her
went blank.

As the Automaton faced Locke voices coul