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Horn's brain came to a sudden halt at the thought. Could it be? There seemed
no other explanation. Virginia Maxon had been rescued from one soulless
monstrosity to fall into the hands of another equally irresponsible and terrifying.
Others then must have escaped from the campong. Von Horn loosened his guns
in their holsters, and took a fresh grip upon his bull whip as he urged Sing
forward upon the trail. He wondered which one it was, but not once did it occur
to him that the latest result of Professor Maxon's experiments could be the
rescuer of Virginia Maxon. In his mind he could see only the repulsive features of
one of the others.
Quite unexpectedly they came upon the two, and with a shout von Horn leaped
forward, his bull whip upraised. Number Thirteen turned in surprise at the cry,
and sensing a new danger for her who lay in his arms, he set her gently upon the
ground behind him and advanced to meet his assailant.
"
Out of the way, you--monstrosity," cried von Horn. "If you have harmed Miss
Maxon I'll put a bullet in your heart!"
Number Thirteen did not understand the words that the other addressed to him
but he interpreted the man's actions as menacing, not to himself, but to the
creature he now considered his particular charge; and so he met the advancing
man, more to keep him from the girl than to offer him bodily injury for he
recognized him as one of the two who had greeted his first dawning
consciousness.
Von Horn, possibly intentionally, misinterpreted the other's motive, and raising
his bull whip struck Number Thirteen a vicious cut across the face, at the same
time levelling his revolver point blank at the broad breast. But before ever he
could pull the trigger an avalanche of muscle was upon him, and he went down
to the rotting vegetation of the jungle with five sinewy fingers at his throat.
His revolver exploded harmlessly in the air, and then another hand wrenched it
from him and hurled it far into the underbrush. Number Thirteen knew nothing
of the danger of firearms, but the noise had startled him and his experience with
the stinging cut of the bull whip convinced him that this other was some sort of
instrument of torture of which it would be as well to deprive his antagonist.
Virginia Maxon looked on in horror as she realized that her rescuer was quickly
choking Dr. von Horn to death. With a little cry she sprang to her feet and ran
toward them, just as her father emerged from the underbrush through which he
had been struggling in the trail of the agile Chinaman and von Horn. Placing her
hand upon the great wrist of the giant she tried to drag his fingers from von
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