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As Balcom entered the library the door-bell rang and the three ambulance men who had been overpowered by the emissaries of the Automaton entered. Balcom approached them and hasty explanations were forthcoming. In his suave manner he quieted the most noisy of the trio, who by this time had found the strait-jacket from which Locke had just released himself.
Instead she almost point-blank refused to do as he had requested. Just then Locke, whom Balcom had almost ignored up to the present, heard the noise of some one coming through the conservatory. It was Paul Balcom, his coat on his arm, his sleeves rolled up, and a tennis-racquet in his hand, as he had come just from the courts.
Zita slipped around the house and to the hedge designated by Balcom as their meeting-place. She was surprised but relieved when she did not find him there, and glanced at her wrist watch, which stood at a few minutes past eight. She was about to turn around when she caught sight of a bit of paper. Taking it, she read: Bring him to my rooms. That was all, and the message was unsigned.
"Well, not for a man who'd just been elected captain and had to set 'em up for the whole of Company A," her father chuckled back. "What in the world do you mean, Mr. Balcom? Oh! There's Editha!" She offered to follow the girl indoors. "Don't come, mother!" Editha called, vanishing. Mrs. Balcom remained to reproach her husband. "I don't see much of anything to laugh at." "Well, it's catching.
After the explosion that had killed Balcom and had come so near to killing Locke, when he had finally rescued himself and had drawn himself out of the hole, there was one who watched him. It was none other than that mysterious being, Doctor Q. What twist of that disordered brain had brought him to the spot was not at once evident.
Balcom," retorted Eva, keenly, "the older head that would protect my interests and the interests of those poor inventors lies stricken, as you know, in the room above. In his absence the children, as you are pleased to call us, will do their best." Balcom glared, while Zita with a strange glance toward Eva left Locke and joined Balcom in a far corner of the room.
Flint bowed decently enough to her, glanced upward, and, as he thought of Eva's father lying stricken with the Madagascar madness in the room above, an evil leer came over his fox-like face. As he left he completely ignored both Locke and Balcom, unless it was that the look in his eyes meant a sort of sinister triumph.
The inventor looked up quickly. "Who did Mr. Balcom say you were?" he asked. "He told me that I was Brent's daughter," replied Zita, keenly watching the aged face. "Balcom lied to you," hastened the inventor. Already there was a ponderous tread on the stairs, but Winters did not seem to notice it. "You are not Brent's daughter," he pursued, more slowly.
He was seldom at rest, scampering here and there, not unlike a bird-dog on a fresh scent. Seeking always seeking what? Balcom grasped his arm in order to arrest his attention. "Doctor Q," he addressed him, "you can have the revenge you have sought so long. Have you prepared everything?" The old man chuckled and wagged his head in senile fashion.
Zita was almost beside herself with curiosity, as Balcom repeated only scraps of the conversation that went on below, but finally the real subject of the whole matter was repeated to her and she was satisfied at last. A peculiar look came into her eyes. As for Balcom, one would have thought that a whole world's treasure had suddenly been placed within his grasp.
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