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point of springing upon the man, but both times the other's eyes had met his and

something which he was not able to comprehend had stayed him. Now that the

other had gone and he was alone contemplation of the hideous wrong that had

been done loosed again the flood gates of his pent rage.

The thought that he had been made by this man--made in the semblance of a

human being, yet denied by the manner of his creation a place among the lowest

of Nature's creatures--filled him with fury, but it was not this thought that drove

him to the verge of madness. It was the knowledge, suggested by von Horn, that

Virginia Maxon would look upon him in horror, as a grotesque and loathsome

monstrosity.

He had no standard and no experience whereby he might classify his sentiments

toward this wonderful creature. All he knew was that his life would be complete

could he be near her always--see her and speak with her daily. He had thought

of her almost constantly since those short, delicious moments that he had held

her in his arms. Again and again he experienced in retrospection the exquisite

thrill that had run through every fiber of his being at the sight of her averted eyes

and flushed face. And the more he let his mind dwell upon the wonderful

happiness that was denied him because of his origin, the greater became his

wrath against his creator.

It was now quite dark without. The door leading to Professor Maxon's campong,

left unlatched earlier in the evening by von Horn for sinister motives of his own,

was still unbarred through a fatal coincidence of forgetfulness on the part of the

professor.

Number Thirteen approached this door. He laid his hand upon the knob. A

moment later he was moving noiselessly across the campong toward the house in

which Professor Maxon lay peacefully sleeping; while at the south gate

Bududreen and his six cutthroats crept cautiously within and slunk in the dense

shadows of the palisade toward the workshop where lay the heavy chest of their

desire. At the same instant Muda Saffir with fifty of his head-hunting Dyaks

emerged from the jungle east of the camp, bent on discovering the whereabouts of

the girl the Malay sought and bearing her away to his savage court far within the

jungle fastness of his Bornean principality.

Number Thirteen reached the verandah of the house and peered through the

window into the living room, where an oil lamp, turned low, dimly lighted the

interior, which he saw was unoccupied. Going to the door he pushed it open and

entered the apartment. All was still within. He listened intently for some slight

sound which might lead him to the victim he sought, or warn him from the

apartment of the girl or that of von Horn--his business was with Professor Maxon.

The Monster Men