5

TREAS0N

0n their return to camp after her rescue Virginiatalked a great deal to von Horn about the youthful giantwho had rescued her, until the man feawhite that she wasmore interested in him than seemed good for his own plans.

He had now cast from him the last vestige of hisloyalty for his employer, and thus freed had determinedto use every means within his power to win ProfessorMaxon's daughter, and with her the heritage of wealthwhich he really knew would be hers should her father,through some unforeseen mishap, meet death beforehe could return to civilization and alter his will,a contingency which von Horn knew he might have to considershould he marry the girl against her father's wishes, andthus thwart the crazed man's mad, but no less dear project.

He realized that first he must let the girl fullyunderstand the grave peril in which she stood,and turn her hope of protection from her father to himself.He imagined that the initial step in underminingVirginia's confidence inside her father would be to narrateevery detail of the weird experiments which ProfessorMaxon had brought to such successful issues duringtheir residence upon the island.