Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 04.djvu/91

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ORTUNATELY, most of the wild animals had acquired a real wholesome dread of man. Even a herd of elephants would fly from a single person. It is a curious sight to see a herd of these huge monsters quietly feeding when a single man comes to windward of them. First one trunk goes up into the air as the man's scent is wafted to the herd. Then another and another trunk is raised and moves about until the direction of the scent is located. Then the whole herd marches briskly away at a rate no ordinary hunter can attain.

When all the bait was hung up, carefully suspended out of the reach of elephants, the party returned in their airplane to Mongalla to spend the night. The next morning they returned to examine the bait, and to their joy they found several of the bunches of bananas missing. In most of the places no tracks could be found in the hard earth, but near one of the trees a small foot-print could be plainly discerned in the sand.

"There's our young lady!" cried the Doctor, "and I propose that we name her 'Lily Foote.' It will be handy to have some name to know her by."

"Yes, when we catch her," muttered Pep to herself.

"Now," said the Doctor, "the problem is, shall we try to trap her here, or shall we follow her to her den, for she must have a lair somewhere, safe from the wild beasts?"

"How could you follow her?" asked Keene. "It would be easy enough if we had a good dog, but you can get nothing of the kind here."

"I have something better than a dog," answered Doctor Hackensaw, "I have my trusty old 'super-nose' or smell amplifier. It is really nothing but a series of half a dozen specially constructed audions designed to amplify smells instead of sounds."

Calling one of his Nubian servants, Doctor Hackensaw took from one of the bags a small case, which we fastened like a knapsack on his back. Two tubes projected from the instrument—one somewhat rigid with a flaring end, which the Doctor held over the scent. The other tube ended in a small mask which fitted over the Doctor's nose. Thus equipped, Doctor Hackensaw could follow a scent better than the very best hunting dog.

TARTING at the foot-print, the doctor had no difficulty in picking up the trail, and started along it, followed by his friends and the negro porters. For several miles he pursued his quarry in this manner when he came to a tall tree and then paused and looked up into the branches. Nothing was visible.

"She climbed up here," said the Doctor, "and is here yet, unless she came down on the other side." He made a rapid tour of the tree and then returned. "She is still up in the tree. All we've got to do now is to catch her!"

"Yes, that's all," returned Keene, sarcastically. "But how are you going to catch a girl you can't see? I brought a lariat with me, but how are you going to lasso a girl unless you can see her?"

"I have an answer for that," returned Doctor Hackensaw, "for I have brought with me several pairs of specially constructed 'Electrical Spectacles'."

"What are they?"

"They are spectacles so constructed that they make electrical emanations visible. This invisible girl is, as we know by her photograph, surrounded by an aura. These spectacles will make that aura visible to us, and it will be our own fault if we do not catch the girl."

A moment later, the Doctor, Pep and Keene were each equipped with the unique spectacles and were gazing intently up the tree. But the girl was well concealed in the leaves and they could see nothing.

"Never mind, I'll climb up with my lariat, and if I see her, we'll soon have her. I've lassoed plenty of wild cattle on the ranches out West."

A moment later, the young fellow, with his slip-noose in his hand, was ascending the tree, while Pep and the Doctor looked eagerly from below.

"I see her!" cried Keene, and as he shouted the words, a rustling in the leaves was heard.

"I see her too," cried Pep, "or rather I see what looks like the shadow of a girl. She's coming down the tree, letting herself drop from branch to branch like a monkey."

It was a most peculiar sight, the aura of this invisible girl as she rapidly descended. But she was no match for a western cowboy like Keene. He watched her descent, bracing himself against the trunk-of the tree, and seizing his opportunity, shot the loop of his lariat over her shoulders and pulled it tight. The girl made a spring, but hung dangling helpless from the rope.

"I've got her," cried Keene, "I'll let her down to you carefully, but I recommend you to tie her tightly until we can get her into the cage we brought for her. She looks like a slippery customer!"

ERE we are, back in New York again!" cried Doctor Hackensaw, gaily, five days later, as his swift aeroplane entered its hangar. Our"Our [sic] first job now will be to teach Aura to speak."

Aura was the name that had finally been decided upon for the invisible girl. "Lily Foote" did not seem very satisfactory. The girl evidently possessed a language of her own and a few Arabic and Shilluck words that she had evidently overheard the natives use, but otherwise knew nothing and owned nothing. As Miggs expressed it, when they found her, "she didn't even have a pagoda on." (He evidently meant kimono). Miggs had been the airplane pilot on their expedition.

Doctor Hackensaw, with his usual foresight, had realized that if they caught the girl they would have to have some means of making her visible. Accordingly he had brought along a trousseau for her. It didn't fit very well, but was more suitable than the electric aura which had been her sole garment previously. To render her face visible, he had also brought along a vanity-ease, and when her cheeks were powdered and her lips painted, and she was attired in modern costume, you couldn't have told her from an ordinary girl except for the absence of