Sandy was first to hear the call and locate it. The others, not expecting a cry for help from within the hangar until they had seen some one go in, when Dick would be only a sort of surprise attacker while they proposed to make the capture, Larry and the detective were confused for an instant.

Then, recovering, and supposing Dick had called from close inside the hangar, they took the quickest way in, and interfered with one another at the small opening in the plates.

Sandy, dashing toward the hangar, correctly supposing Dick had called from its smaller doorway, did not see Jeff emerge from the old house and start on a run in the same direction.

Dick, clinging with all his strength to a wiry, supple powerful body, strove to keep that hold while he captured the hands that were pounding at his neck and averted face.

Hot, quick puffs of breath fanned his cheek.
251

Hissing, sibilant gasps marked the throes of the struggle.

Unexpectedly the figure went limp.

Dick clung. He heard the aides coming in through the metal opening. He caught the pound of Sandy’s approaching shoes.

But he did not believe he had made his captive so tamely surrender.

He realized that with a hand at her side the woman was striving to get at something in her skirt.

He slipped his arm down lower so that his hand encountered her wrist.

That lessened his ability to hold with the arm that was already aching from its prolonged strain. His hand gripped convulsively in the folds of the dress at the back; but his grip was not as tight as it had been because his mind was concentrated on stopping that other hand!

He felt a knee coming up.

Involuntarily he shrank back from a possible kick in some vital spot.

Like a cat the figure squirmed, a heel, small and sharp, came down on his foot. He grunted and winced and the figure broke his grip.

Pushing him, leaping backward, only to catch balance, the form wheeled on agile feet and ran for the grove.
252

Sandy, within sighting distance, cut into the wood to intersect the path of flight.

Dick pounded after the woman.

From the door of the hangar Larry and Mr. Whiteside emerged to join the chase.

“If I could have held her one second more!—” panted Dick.

“Her?” cried Larry.

The grove had prevented him from seeing the escaping figure.

“It was Mimi, I guess!”

They all disappeared into the grove, and Jeff, coming rapidly closer, paused to listen to the sound of the pursuit.

A smile, inscrutable in the dark, ............