They looked about carefully. There was no one on that side of the hotel just at the moment.
"Ready," responded one. "Quick!"
Together, Del Mar and Madame Larenz passed Elaine, ineffectually struggling, out of the window. The men seized her and placed her in the bottom of the car, which was covered. Then they shot away, taking a back road up the hill.
Hurriedly the naturalist went through the lobby in the direction Elaine had gone, and a moment later reached the corridor above.
Down it, he could hear some one coming out of room twenty-two. He slid into an angle and hid.
It was Del Mar and the woman he had seen at the bungalow. They passed by without discovering him, nor could he make out anything that they said. What mischief was afoot? Where was Elaine?
He ran to the door and tried it. It was locked. Quickly, he took from his pocket a skeleton key and unlocked it. There was Elaine's hat and dress lying in a heap on the bed. But she was not there. He was now thoroughly alarmed.
She could not have passed him in the hall. Therefore she must have gone or been taken out through the window. That would never have been voluntary, especially leaving her things there.
The window was still open. He ran to it. One glance out was enough. He leaped to the ground. Sure enough, there were automobile tracks in the dust.
"Del Mar's car," he muttered to himself, studying them.