"Act pretty, and you won't get hurt." "Why! It's--it's Mr._Mallow_!" Gray hitched himself farther around in his seat and leaned forward in justifiable amazement.

"As I live it's you, Mallow!" Both highwaymen were in front of him, now, and shoulder to shoulder; he made sure there were no others behind them.
"Shut up!" Mallow snapped.

"Frisk him, Tony, and--" The command was cut short by a startled, throaty cry--a hoarse sound of astonishment and rage--and simultaneously a strange, a phenomenal thing occurred.

An unseen hand appeared to strike down both Mallow and his accomplice where they stood, and it smote them, moreover, with appalling force and terrifying effect.

One moment they were in complete mastery of the situation, the next they were groveling in the road, coughing, sneezing, barking, retching, blaspheming poisonously.