proved now his undoing, for while his attention was riveted upon

the thing circling before him and while his ears were filled with

the beating of its wings, there swooped silently out of the black

night behind him another weird and ghostly shape. With its huge

wings partly closed for the dive and its white robe fluttering in

its wake, the apparition swooped down upon the Englishman.

So great was the force of the impact when the thing struck

Bradley between the shoulders that the man was half stunned.

His rifle flew from his grasp; he felt clawlike talons of great

strength seize him beneath his arms and sweep him off his feet;

and then the thing rose swiftly with him, so swiftly that his cap

was blown from his head by the rush of air as he was borne

rapidly upward into the inky sky and the cry of warning to his

companions was forced back into his lungs.

The creature wheeled immediately toward the east and was at once

joined by its fellow, who circled them once and then fell in

behind them. Bradley now realized the strategy that the pair

had used to capture him and at once concluded that he was in the

power of reasoning beings closely related to the human race if

not actually of it.

Past experience suggested that the great wings were a part of

some ingenious mechanical device, for the limitations of the

human mind, which is always loath to accept aught beyond its own

little experience, would not permit him to entertain the idea

that the creatures might be naturally winged and at the same time

of human origin. From his position Bradley could not see the

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