Bell's hand drifted near his hidden weapon. But Ribiera looked neither surprised nor alarmed. He halted and chuckled. "Ah, the Senhor Bell!" Bell said nothing, looking as stupid as possible, merely because there was nothing else to do. "Ah, do not deny my acquaintance!" said Ribiera. He laughed. "I advise you to go and look at the view, over the harbor. Good day, Senhor Bell." Laughing, he went off along the street. And Bell felt a cold horror creeping over him as he realized what Ribiera might mean. Ribiera had entirely too much against him to greet him only, in a town where even the dogs dared not bark without The Master's express command. He had guards with him, men who would have shot Bell down at a nod from Ribiera. Bell burst into a mad run for the waterfront. When the bay spread out before his eyes he saw what Ribiera meant, and something seemed to snap in his brain. The plane in which he and Jamison and Paula had escaped in was floating out in the harbor. It was unmistakable. A larger, bulkier seaplane floated beside it. The buzzing in the air the night before.... The arrival of the plane had been telephoned from Cape Virgins. Through a glass, perhaps, even its alighting had been watched. And a big seaplane had gone out to bring it back. Footprints in the sand would lead toward the lighthouse. There would be plenty of men to storm that, if necessary, to take the three fugitives. But they would have found only Paula. It was quite possible that the plane had only been sent for after Bell and Jamison had been seen to land in Punta Arenas. And Paula in The Master's hands would explain Ribiera's amusement perfectly. * * * * * Bell found Jamison looking unhurriedly for him. And Jamison glanced at his utterly white face and said softly: "We want to get where we can't be seen, to talk. There's the devil to pay." "No use hiding," said Bell. His lips seemed stiff. "Paula--" "Hide anyway," snapped Jamison. He fairly thrust Bell into an alleyway between two houses and thrust two rounded objects beneath his loose fitting coat. "Two grenades. I have two more. The boat we came in is taken--" "So is the plane," said Bell emotionlessly. "And there is a sign, in English, posted where we tied it up. The sign says, '_The Senores Bell and Jamison may recover their boat on application to The Master, and may also receive news of a late traveling companion from him._" "We're known," Bell told him--and amazingly found it possible to smile faintly--"Ribiera met me on the street and spoke to me and laughed and went on." Jamison stared. Bell's manner was almost entirely normal again. Then Jamison shrugged. "The sense of what you're saying," he observed wryly, "is that we're licked. Let us, then, go to see The Master. I confess I feel some curiosity to know just what he's like." * * * * *