"We must keep him from saving the girl," panted the leader of the
emissaries to the others.
Inside the old building stood some huge tanks of acid, and as they
rolled nearer and nearer to them it became evident that Locke was in
their power.
Suddenly one emissary reached out and secured a coil of rope, which he
unwound quickly. The others, too, saw their chance. It was fiendish.
Round and round they wound the rope until they had Locke well-nigh
helpless. Then one of them cast the end of the coil over a beam, all
seized the end as it fell on the other side, and Locke found himself
dangling head downward from the beam, suspended over the vat of acid.
They were about to drop him into it when one, more alert and more
fiendish than the rest, cried out, "Look!"
Through a window now they could see Eva, and back of her the terrible
figure of the Automaton, stalking. She had walked directly into the
trap, but the fight with Locke had delayed the emissaries. Wildly now
Eva was running over the lawn, full in the direction of the acid-room
from the Cliff House.
"Quick!" directed the emissary. "She'll come in that door.
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