Madame Larenz opened the door.  “Oh, I’m so glad you came,” she rattled on to Elaine.  “You see, I’ve got to get started.  Not a customer yet.  But if you’ll only take a few gowns, other people will come to me.  I’ll let you have them cheaply, too.  Just look at this one.”

She held up one filmy, creamy creation that looked like a delicate flower.

“I’d like to try it on,” cried Elaine, fingering it rapturously.

“By all means,” agreed Madame.  “We are alone.  Do so.”

With deft fingers, Larenz helped her take off her own very pretty dress.  As Elaine slipped the soft gown over her head, with her head and arms engaged in its multitudinous folds, Madame Larenz, a powerful woman, seized her.  Elaine was effectually gagged and bound in the gown itself.

Instantly, Del Mar flung himself from the closet, disguising his voice.  Together, they wrapped the dress about Elaine even more tightly to prevent her screaming.

Madame ’Larenz seized a blanket and threw that over Elaine’s head, also, while Del Mar ran to the window.  There were his men in the car, waiting below.

“Are you ready?” he called softly to them.

They looked about carefully.  There was no one on that side of the hotel just at the moment.

“Ready,” responded one.  “Quick!”

Together, Del Mar and Madame Larenz passed Elaine, ineffectually struggling, out of the window.  The men seized her and placed her in the bottom of the car, which was covered.  Then they shot away, taking a back road up the hill.

Hurriedly the naturalist went through the lobby in the direction Elaine had gone, and a moment later reached the corridor above.

Down it, he could hear some one coming out of room twenty-two.  He slid into an angle and hid.

It was Del Mar and the woman he had seen at the bungalow.  They passed by without discovering him, nor could he make out anything that they said.  What mischief was afoot?  Where was Elaine?

He ran to the door and tried it.  It was locked.  Quickly, he took from his pocket a skeleton key and unlocked it.  There was Elaine’s hat and dress lying in a heap on the bed.  But she was not there.  He was now thoroughly alarmed.

She could not have passed him in the hall.  Therefore she must have gone or been taken out through the window.  That would never have been voluntary, especially leaving her things there.

The window was still open.  He ran to it.  One glance out was enough.  He leaped to the ground.  Sure enough, there were automobile tracks in the dust.

“Del Mar’s car,” he muttered to himself, studying them.

He fairly ran around the side of the hotel.  There he came suddenly upon Elaine’s car standing alone, and recognized it.

There was no time for delay.  He jumped into it, and let the swift little racer out as he turned and gathered momentum to shoot up the hill on high speed.