As Professor Maxon and von Horn rushed from theworkshop to their own campong, they neglected, in theirhaste, to lock the door between, and for the first timesince the camp was completed it stood unlatched and ajar.

The professor had been engaged in taking carefulmeasurements of the head of his latest experiment, thewhile he coached the young man in the first rudimentsof spoken language, and now the subject of his laborsfound himself suddenly deserted and alone. He had notyet been without the four walls of the workshop, as theprofessor had wished to keep him from association withthe grotesque results of his earlier experiments, andnow a natural curiosity tempted him to approach thedoor through which his creator and the man with thebull whip had so suddenly disappeared.

He saw before him a great walled enclosure roofed by alofty azure dome, and beyond the walls the tops ofgreen trees swaying gently in the soft breezes. Hisnostrils tasted the incense of fresh earth and growingthings. For the first time he felt the breath ofNature, free and unconfined, upon his brow.

He drew his giant frame to its full height and drankin the freedom and the sweetness of it all, filling hisgreat lungs to their fullest; and with the first tastehe learned to hate the close and stuffy confines of his prison.

His virgin mind was filled with wonder at the wealth ofnew impressions which surged to his brain through everysense. He longed for more, and the open gateway of thecampong was a scarce needed invitation to pass to thewide world beyond. With the free and easy tread ofutter unconsciousness of self, he passed across theenclosure and stepped out into the clearing which laybetween the palisade and the jungle.

Ah, here was a still more beautiful world! The greenleaves nodded to him, and at their invitation he cameand the jungle reached out its million arms to embracehim. Now before him, behind, on either side there wasnaught but glorious green beauty shot with splashes ofgorgeous color that made him gasp in wonderment.

Brilliant birds rose from amidst it all, skimminghither and thither above his head--he thought that theflowers and the birds were the same, and when hereached out and plucked a blossom, tenderly,he wondered that it did not flutter in his hand.On and on he walked, but slowly, for he must not missa single sight in the strange and wonderful place; and then,of a sudden, the quiet beauty of the scene was harshlybroken by the crashing of a monster through the underbrush.

Number Thirteen was standing in a little open place inthe jungle when the discordant note first fell upon his ears,and as he turned his head in the direction of the soundhe was startled at the hideous aspect of the thing whichbroke through the foliage before him.

What a horrid creature! But on the same instant his eyesfell upon another borne in the arms of the terrible one.This one was different--very different,-- soft andbeautiful and white. He wondered what it all meant,for everything was strange and new to him;but when he saw the eyes of the lovely one upon him,and her arms outstretched toward him, though he did not understand the words upon her lips, he knew thatshe was in distress. Something told him that it was theugly thing that carried her that was the author of her suffering.

Virginia Maxon had been half unconscious from frightwhen she suddenly saw a white man, clothed in coarse,white, native pajamas, confronting her and themisshapen beast that was bearing her away to whatfrightful fate she could but conjecture.

At the sight of the man her voice returned withreturning hope, and she reached her arms toward him,calling upon him to save her. Although he did notrespond she thought that he understood for he sprangtoward them before her appeal was scarce uttered.

As before, when Sing had threatened to filch his newpossession from him, Number One held the girl with onehand while he met the attack of this new assailant withthe other; but here was very different metal than hadsuccumbed to him before.

It is true that Number Thirteen knew nothing whateverof personal combat, but Number One had but littleadvantage of him in the matter of experience, while theformer was equipped with great natural intelligence aswell as steel muscles no whit less powerful than hisdeformed predecessor.

So it was that the awful giant found his single handhelpless to cope with the strength of his foeman, andin a brief instant felt powerful fingers clutching athis throat. Still reluctant to surrender his hold uponhis prize, he beat futilely at the face of his enemy,but at last the agony of choking compelled him to dropthe girl and grapple madly with the man who choked himwith one hand and rained mighty and merciless blowsupon his face and head with the other.

His captive sank to the ground, too weak from theeffects of nervous shock to escape, and with horror-filled eyes watched the two who battled over her. Shesaw that her would-be rescuer was young and strongfeatured--all together a very fine specimen of manhood;and to her great wonderment it was soon apparent thathe was no unequal match for the great mountain ofmuscle that he fought.

Both tore and struck and clawed and bit in the frenzyof mad, untutored strife, rolling about on the softcarpet of the jungle almost noiselessly except fortheir heavy breathing and an occasional beast-likesnarl from Number One. For several minutes they foughtthus until the younger man succeeded in getting bothhands upon the throat of his adversary, and then,choking relentlessly, he raised the brute with him fromthe ground and rushed him fiercely backward against thestem of a tree. Again and again he hurled themonstrous thing upon the unyielding wood, until at lastit hung helpless and inert in his clutches, then hecast it from him, and without another glance at itturned toward the girl.

Here was a problem indeed. Now that he had won her,what was he to do with her? He was but an adult child,with the brain and brawn of a man, and the ignoranceand inexperience of the new-born. And so he acted as achild acts, in imitation of what it has seen others do.The brute had been carrying the lovely creature,therefore that must be the thing for him to do, and sohe stooped and gathered Virginia Maxon in his great arms.

She tried to tell him that she could walk after amoment's rest, but it was soon evident that he did notunderstand her, as a puzzled expression came to hisface and he did not put her down as she asked. Insteadhe stood irresolute for a time, and then moved slowlythrough the jungle. By chance his direction was towardthe camp, and this fact so relieved the girl's mind thatpresently she was far from loath to remain quietly in his arms.

After a moment she gained courage to look up into hisface. She thought that she never had seen somarvellously clean cut features, or a more high andnoble countenance, and she wondered how it was thatthis white man was upon the island and she not haveknown it. Possibly he was a new arrival--his presenceunguessed even by her father. That he was neitherEnglish nor American was evident from the fact that hecould not understand her native tongue. Who could hebe! What was he doing upon their island!

As she watched his face he suddenly turned his eyesdown upon her, and as she looked hurriedly away she wasfurious with herself as she felt a crimson flush mantleher cheek. The man only half sensed, in a vague sortof way, the meaning of the tell tale color and thequickly averted eyes; but he became suddenly aware ofthe pressure of her delicate body against his, as hehad not been before. Now he kept his eyes upon herface as he walked, and a new emotion filled his breast.He did not understand it, but it was very pleasant, andhe knew that it was because of the radiant thing thathe carried in his arms.

The scream that had startled von Horn and ProfessorMaxon led them along the trail toward the east coast ofthe island, and about halfway of the distance theystumbled upon the dazed and bloody Sing just as he wason the point of regaining consciousness.

"For God's sake, Sing, what is the matter?" cried von Horn."Where is Miss Maxon?"

"Big blute, he catchem Linee. Tly kill Sing. Head hit tlee.No see any more. Wakee up--all glone," moaned the Chinamanas he tried to gain his feet.

"Which way did he take her?" urged von Horn.

Sing's quick eyes scanned the surrounding jungle,and in a moment, staggering to his feet, he cried,"Look see, klick! Foot plint!" and ran, weak andreeling drunkenly, along the broad trail made bythe giant creature and its prey.

Von Horn and Professor Maxon followed closely inSing's wake, the younger man horrified by the terriblepossibilities that obtruded themselves into hisimagination despite his every effort to assure himselfthat no harm could come to Virginia Maxon before theyreached her. The girl's father had not spoken sincethey discovered that she was missing from the campong,but his face was white and drawn; his eyes wide andglassy as those of one whose mind is on the verge ofmadness from a great nervous shock.

The trail of the creature was bewilderingly erratic.A dozen paces straight through the underbrush, then asharp turn at right angles for no apparent reason, onlyto veer again suddenly in a new direction! Thus,turning and twisting, the tortuous way led them towardthe south end of the island, until Sing, who was inadvance, gave a sharp cry of surprise.

"Klick! Look see!" he cried excitedly. "Blig blute dead--vely muchee dead."

Von Horn rushed forward to where the Chinaman wasleaning over the body of Number One. Sure enough,the great brute lay motionless, its horrid face even morehideous in death than in life, if it were possible.The face was black, the tongue protruded, the skin wasbruised from the heavy fists of his assailant and thethick skull crushed and splintered from terrific impactwith the tree.

Professor Maxon leaned over von Horn's shoulder."Ah, poor Number One," he sighed, "that you should have cometo such an untimely end--my child, my child."

Von Horn looked at him, a tinge of compassion in hisrather hard face. It touched the man that his employerwas at last shocked from the obsession of his work to arealization of the love and duty he owed his daughter;he thought that the professor's last words referred toVirginia.

"Though there are twelve more," continued ProfessorMaxon, "you were my first born son and I loved youmost, dear child."

The younger man was horrified.

"My God, Professor!" he cried. "Are you mad? Can youcall this thing `child' and mourn over it when you donot yet know the fate of your own daughter?"

Professor Maxon looked up sadly. "You do notunderstand, Dr. von Horn," he replied coldly, "and youwill oblige me, in the future, by not again referringto the offspring of my labors as `things.'"

With an ugly look upon his face von Horn turned hisback upon the older man--what little feeling of loyaltyand affection he had ever felt for him gone forever.Sing was looking about for evidences of the cause ofNumber One's death and the probable direction in whichVirginia Maxon had disappeared.

"What on earth could have killed this enormous brute, Sing?Have you any idea?" asked von Horn.

The Chinaman shook his head.

"No savvy," he replied. "Blig flight. Look see,"and he pointed to the torn and trampled turf,the broken bushes, and to one or two small treesthat had been snapped off by the impact of the twomighty bodies that had struggled back and forthabout the little clearing.

"This way," cried Sing presently, and started off oncemore into the brush, but this time in a northwesterlydirection, toward camp.

In silence the three men followed the new trail,all puzzled beyond measure to account for the deathof Number One at the hands of what must have been acreature of superhuman strength. What could it havebeen! It was impossible that any of the Malays orlascars could have done the thing, and there were noother creatures, brute or human, upon the island largeenough to have coped even for an instant with theferocious brutality of the dead monster, except--von 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 soullessmonstrosity to fall into the hands of another equallyirresponsible 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 heurged Sing forward upon the trail. He wonderedwhich one it was, but not once did it occur to himthat the latest result of Professor Maxon's experimentscould be the rescuer of Virginia Maxon. In his mind hecould see only the repulsive features of one of the others.

Quite unexpectedly they came upon the two, and with ashout von Horn leaped forward, his bull whip upraised.Number Thirteen turned in surprise at the cry, andsensing a new danger for her who lay in his arms,he set her gently upon the ground behind himand 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 inyour heart!"

Number Thirteen did not understand the words that theother addressed to him but he interpreted the man'sactions as menacing, not to himself, but to thecreature he now considered his particular charge;and so he met the advancing man, more to keep him fromthe girl than to offer him bodily injury for he recognizedhim as one of the two who had greeted his first dawningconsciousness.

Von Horn, possibly intentionally, misinterpreted theother's motive, and raising his bull whip struck NumberThirteen a vicious cut across the face, at the same timelevelling his revolver point blank at the broad beast.But before ever he could pull the trigger an avalancheof muscle was upon him, and he went down to the rottingvegetation of the jungle with five sinewy fingers at his throat.

His revolver exploded harmlessly in the air, and thenanother hand wrenched it from him and hurled it farinto the underbrush. Number Thirteen knew nothing ofthe danger of firearms, but the noise had startled himand his experience with the stinging cut of the bullwhip convinced him that this other was some sort ofinstrument of torture of which it would be as well todeprive his antagonist.

Virginia Maxon looked on in horror as she realized thather 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 throughwhich he had been struggling in the trail of the agileChinaman and von Horn. Placing her hand upon the greatwrist of the giant she tried to drag his fingers fromvon Horn's throat, pleading meanwhile with both voiceand eyes for the life of the man she thought loved her.

Again Number Thirteen translated the intent withoutunderstanding the words, and releasing von Hornpermitted him to rise. With a bound he was upon hisfeet and at the same instant brought his other gun fromhis side and levelled it upon the man who had released him;but as his finger tightened upon the trigger Virginia Maxonsprang between them and grasping von Horn's wrist deflectedthe muzzle of the gun just as the cartridge exploded.Simultaneously Professor Maxon sprang from his graspand hurled him back with the superhuman strength of a maniac.

"Fool!" he cried. "What would you do? Kill--,"and then of a sudden he realized his daughter's presenceand the necessity for keeping the origin of the younggiant from her knowledge.

"I am surprised at you, Dr. von Horn," he continued ina more level voice. "You must indeed have forgottenyourself to thus attack a stranger upon our islanduntil you know whether he be friend or foe. Come!Escort my daughter to the camp, while I make the properapologies to this gentleman." As he saw that bothVirginia and von Horn hesitated, he repeated his commandin a peremptory tone, adding; "Quick, now; do as I bid you."

The moment had given von Horn an opportunity to regainhis self-control, and realizing as well as did his employer,but from another motive, the necessity of keeping the truthfrom the girl, he took her arm and led her gently from the scene.At Professor Maxon's direction Sing accompanied them.

Now in Number Thirteen's brief career he had known noother authority than Professor Maxon's, and so it wasthat when his master laid a hand upon his wrist heremained beside him while another walked away with thelovely creature he had thought his very own.

Until after dark the professor kept the young manhidden in the jungle, and then, safe from detection,led him back to the laboratory.