They dropped down in the shadow.  There in the light of the street lamps was the fussy old gentleman coming across the lawn.  He stole up to the door of the conservatory and looked through.  Del Mar’s men crawled a few feet closer.  The little old man entered the conservatory and looked about again stealthily.  The two men followed him in noiselessly and watched as he bent over the palm pot from which the dog had dug up the torpedo.  He looked at the hole curiously.  Just then he heard sounds behind him and sprang to his feet.

“Hands up!” ordered one of the men covering him with a gun.

The little old man threw up his hands, raising his cane still in his right hand.  The man with the gun took a step closer.  As he did so, the little old man brought down his cane with a quick blow and knocked the gun out of his hand.  The second man seized the cane.  The old man jerked the cane back and was standing there with a thin tough steel rapier.  It was a sword-cane.  Del Mar’s man held the sheath.

As the man attacked with the sheath, the little old man parried, sent it flying from his grasp, and wounded him.  The wounded man sank down, while the little old man ran off through the palms, followed by the other of Del Mar’s men.

Around the hall, he ran, and back into the conservatory where he picked up a heavy chair and threw it through the glass, dropping himself behind a convenient hiding-place near-by.  Del Mar’s man, close after him, mistaking the crash of glass for the escape of the man he was pursuing, went on through the broken exit.  Then the little old man doubled on his tracks and made for the front of the house.

. . . . . . .

With Aunt Josephine I had remained in the library.

“What’s that?” I exclaimed at the first sounds.  “A fight?”

Together we rushed for the conservatory.

The fight followed so quickly by the crash of glass also alarmed Elaine and Del Mar in the hallway and they hurried toward the library, which we had just left, by another door.

As they entered, they saw a little old gentleman rushing in from the conservatory and locking the door behind him.  He whirled about, and he and Del Mar recognized each other at once.  They drew guns together, but the little old man fired first.

His bullet struck the wall back of Del Mar and a cloud of vapor was instantly formed, enveloping Del Mar and even Elaine.  Del Mar fell, overcome, while Elaine sank more slowly.  The little old man ran forward.

In the conservatory, Aunt Josephine and I heard the shooting, just as one of Del Mar’s men ran in again.  With him we ran back toward the library.

By this time the whole house was aroused.  Jennings and Marie were hurrying down-stairs, crying for help and making their way to the library also.

In the library, the little old man bent over Del Mar and Elaine.  But it was only a moment later that he heard the whole house aroused.  Quickly he shut and locked the folding-doors to the drawing-room, as, with Del Mar’s man, I was beating at the rear library door.