The Flying Legion

holds out promises of romance. Stars wavered and wimpled in the black waters of

uniforms, with long coats over the uniforms to mask them. All carried vacuum-flashlights in their overcoat pockets, and lethal-gas pistols, in a

ggles, despite the warmth of the night. To appear in only his celluloid mask, even at a time like this when darkness would have hidden him, seemed

ster at the wheel. He seemed cool, collected, impassive; but the majo

, however, were now forbidden. So were pipes and cigarettes. The Master did not intend to have even th

udson sparkling with city illumination on either hand, with still or

our partner in

nt," correct

t procedure." He spoke in low tones, covered by the purring exhaust of the launch and by the hiss

e wheel. "What would you have done? Wha

you don't even know, accurately, how much you've got-nobody can keep track of figures

y money could have produced it, sooner. And absolute ennui can't wait half a year.

checkmated. In the third place, what you propose would have been tame sport, indeed, as

lways the chance of fai

that capsule burst in the laborat

e one e

rimly, and sighted his c

iven, in no time. Why didn't y

or sale, at

rth of property and with provisions and equipment like that, all r

, my dear

ment of mine, the last

panion swung the laun

se nothing can overhau

f mind weighs every po

a fan of swift aerial

ro

an anything

s quite simple and

rthe

. "You are good in a charge, in sudden daring, in swift attack. But in the

bit of doubting Thomas in your ego. It's not too late, yet, for you to turn back. I'll

a curve toward the Manhattan shore. Bohannan ang

word of this sort you'll ever hear me utt

waters, a tense smile appeared on the steersman's lips. In his dark eyes gleamed the joy which to some men ranks supre

came forward to the engines. The Master's cross-questionings of this man had convinced him his credentials were genuine and that he was loyal, devot

peration of gas engines, obeyed the command. The whipping breeze of their swift course, the hiss

the base of the cliff or atop it, showed that the sparsely settled Palisades were drawing abeam. The ceaseless, swarming acti

r-flecked waters. The Master threw a scornful glance at it. He turned in his seat, and peered at the shimmer of the city's lights, strung like a lumi

all this fighting for bread, and scheming over pennies-child's play. Less th

er the spokes. The launch dr

speed," he directed, "and con

s,

This man, he felt, would surely be a valued member of the crew. He might prove more than that. The

f. Sounds from shore began to grow audible Afar, an auto siren shriek

. The eyes of the Master rested on this a moment, brightening. He smiled

, now, Cap

abic to Rrisa, who seized a boat hook and came forward. Out of the gloom small wharf advanced to me

Before the Master left, he bent and seemed to be manipulating so

anded, "and hold hard

t once the propeller c

leaped to

the hook into the

he launch began to draw slowly back into the stream. Alread

stioned the maj

m shore, in deep water," answered the Mas

housand doll

ching the shore tonight, is leaving any more trace t

at serpented up the face of the densely wooded cliff, and began to ascend. A lather

es nor any power save universal, etheric rays in an absolute vacuum-glowed with pale virescence over some particularly rough bit of goi

flung, dicelike, amid heavy timbers on the brow of the Palisades. Off to the north, the faint, ghost

bound shoulders not now hardened to such burdens. The

eventeen minutes to midnight. At midn

reenish-white light will-o'-the-wisped ahead, flickering hither, yon. No one spoke a word. Every footstep

eathed. "The outer guards are

he had carefully studied on the large-scale map he and the Master had used in planning the attack; but the Master's intimate knowledge was not his. After two

ered. "Take cover, and fol

or the far, vague roar of the city. A vagrant little breeze was stirring the new foliage, throug

ted up against the sky, an occasional noise drifted to the night. A distant laugh diffused itself through the dark. A dog yapped;

n't strike now!" He felt a great temptation to urge haste, on the Master. But, aware of the futility of a

can call "stealing" the forced sale the Master now planned consummating, by having his bankers put into unwilling hands every ultimate penny

ing stress of the zero hour, this final moment of waiting, of suspense before the attack that was so profoundly to affect his life and the lives of all these other hardy men, pulled heavily at his nerv

hint or sign of it. Where might the others of the Legion be? No indication of them could be made out. No other living thing

hat each, with luminous watch on wrist, was even now timing himself, to the second, before striking the single note calculated to produce, in harmony with all the rest, the finished

crouching,

120 seconds, you will hear the first capsule burst. Ten seconds after that, Alden, fire

the words: "La Illaha ilia Allah" transpired in a wraith of sound. Ald

nd level attached to each gun gave them their exact direction and elevatio

ing all, was not to be distracted by even so small a detai

cation of it. His eyes remained fixed on the watch-dial at his wrist. They were confident, those eyes. The vagu

ormula to its ultimate minutiae-now felt utter trust in its reactions, n

, and fell silent. Presently, after

wait. The Mas

psule will burst there!" He pointe