“Guess it must have been a cat,” the man muttered and closed the door.
Madge breathed a sigh of relief and for several minutes dared not move. Then she summoned her courage, and quietly crept up the stairs leading to the interior of the house.
Suddenly she was startled to hear Enid’s cry:
“Let us go as you promised! You have the Zudi Drum. What more do you want?”
Unable to bear the suspense of not knowing what was transpiring within, Madge reached up and slowly turned the door knob. She pushed the door open a tiny crack and peered into the room.
The sight caused her to gasp.
Mr. Burnett, his face pale and drawn, lay upon a sagging couch at one end of the room. His arms and legs were bound. Enid stood beside him, facing the kidnappers defiantly.
Besides the man who had met Enid at the white birch, there were three others in the room. Two of them Madge had never seen before. They were Indian natives, dressed in strange costumes befitting their race. The third man had his back turned to the cellar door. As he moved, Madge saw his face distinctly. It was the boatman who had taken her to The Flora on the day of her arrival!
“I knew it!” she told herself excitedly. “The entire affair is clear to me now. Enid and her father are in very grave danger.”
Madge was convinced that she was dealing with a fanatical group of Zudi Drum worshipers who sought retribution for the loss of their trophy. How an organization which was thought no longer to exist, had traced the drum to Mr. Burnett, she had no way of knowing. And matters at hand were too pressing to consider any question save a means of securing the immediate release of her friends. From the cruel faces of the kidnappers she read that the return of the Zudi Drum was not all they wanted. They intended to inflict punishment upon their victims.