“For _you_!” cried the woman facing him, above the swirling of the waters. “I shall be able to shake you off at last. I shall be saved from you. The werwolf will be caught, and your power over me and over others be at an end!” “I will soon show you that,” said Mabuse, advancing and bending over her; and then what happened came so quickly that she could scarcely distinguish the movements. “George!” called Mabuse, the one word only, and then he unfastened the police uniform which concealed his clothing and threw it towards George, who at once donned it and stood near the Countess, exposing himself to the searchlight, while Mabuse took his place at the wheel. They heard a shout close to them. “Halt!” cried a voice from out the sounds her eager ears had been absorbing. “Halt!” A shot whizzed in the air, and an echo resounded. George fired in return. The boat gave an upward lurch and then suddenly two high dams enclosed it. Where was the lake? Where was the wide expanse of night? There was a rustling sound, and a beating against the spring tides of the Rhine. The searchlight had disappeared, and a soft, warm mist covered the stream and the dams. They were smooth as railway lines, and a bridge lay diagonally above them. The throbbing of the engine resounded from its arched vault. Then a sudden movement flung the Countess to the ground. The boat sprang up into the air with a loud report, but the woman was caught as she fell; she could feel herself lifted; someone held her, and ran swiftly with her; her cries were stifled, and a red mist swam before her eyes. * * * * * George lay on the shore, one arm broken. With the sound one he felt for the police helmet and crammed it down on his head. The fall had stunned him slightly, but he could have escaped; nevertheless, he lay still. It was not long before he saw two revolvers levelled at him. Two electric torches glared before his eyes. “We’ve got the one in uniform!” said a voice. George kept quite quiet. He was carried from the land into a boat and fettered to a thwart. The engine started, and the boat drove across the lake back to Schachen. The day was dawning when George reached the wooden landing-stage once more. They took him into the villa and locked him into a room with barred windows, out of which he could not escape, even had two men not been in charge of him. The inspector said to himself, “Thank God, we have caught him at last, and in his police uniform too! thank God!” * * * * * At five o’clock that morning Wenk left Munich in a hydroplane, landing two hours later at Schachen. He flew up the stairs of the Villa Elise to reach the room where the imprisoned robber-king was waiting ... waiting for _him_, the conqueror! “Here is Dr. Mabuse,” called out the inspector, advancing towards him. “We have him safe at last, thank God!”