"We have guards there, Jac--eight of our assistants.... Father, I called Robins a while ago. He said everything was all right. But don't you think we should call him again?" The doctor had drifted into deep thought. "What? Oh, yes, Elza. I was thinking we should go there. My notes--descriptions of how to build a larger apparatus--larger than the small model I have installed there--my notes are all there, and I want them. And I don't think, at such a time, I should trust Robins to bring them." "What shall I send to Headquarters?" Georg asked. "They wanted an answer, you remember." "I'm going there to the Potomac--tell them that. Tell them we will come there for safety. But first I must get my notes, and the model." As Georg went to the door, something in his attitude made us all start to our feet and follow him. No alarm from the insulator had come, yet for myself I had not forgotten that Venus girl outside. Georg was at the door, tense as though to spring forward as soon as he opened it. I was close behind him. "What----" "Wait, Jac! Quiet! I just want to see--in case she _is_ doing something." He jerked open the door suddenly and bounded through, with me after him. The corridor was empty. But there was a whirring coming from the instrument room. We leaped across the padded corridor. In the instrument room, Ahla the maid sat at the table with a head-piece clasped to her ears. She was talking softly but swiftly into the transmitter. In the mirror beside her I caught a glimpse of the place to which she was talking. A sort of cave--flickering lights--a crowd of dark figures of Venus men, seemingly armed. She must have heard us coming. A sweep of her white arm dashed the mirror to the floor, smashing it. Then she cast off the head-piece, and leaping to her feet, faced us, blazing and defiant. CHAPTER IV _To the North Pole_ "You stand back! You do not touch me!" The Venus girl fairly hissed the words. Her eyes were dilated; her white hair hung in a tumbling, wavy mass over her shoulders. She stood tense--a frail, girlish figure in a short, grey-cloth mantle, with long grey stockings beneath. We were startled. Georg stopped momentarily; then he jumped at her. It was a false move, for before we could reach her, with a piercing cry, she was tearing at the instruments on the table; her fingers, with burns unheeded, ripping the delicate wires, smashing the small mirrors, flinging everything to the floor. A few seconds only, but it was enough. She was panting when Georg caught her by the wrists, and we others gathered around them. "Ahla!" Elza cried in horror. I can appreciate the shock to Elza, who had trusted, even loved this girl. Dr. Brende stood in confused astonishment, staring at the wreck of the instrument table. From a naked wire a little black coil of smoke was coming up. I fumbled about and switched the current out of everything.