“Where?” demanded Konrad.

Jupe pointed to a place where an outcropping of white stone thrust through the grass. “I saw Havemeyer go that way.”

A faint scream came to them then, a high, wordless wail of terror, and they heard a distant pounding, as if someone were hammering at a door with clenched fists.

“Anna!” cried Konrad.

A skunk darted across Pete’s feet and disappeared among the trees.

The scream came again, louder.

 “We are here, Anna!” shouted Hans.

The Three Investigators and the Bavarian brothers charged in through the trees in the direction of the screams and pounding. Pete coughed harshly, and Jupe felt that he was strangling in the dim, smoky air.

“Anna?” shouted Hans. “Where are you, Anna?”

“I am here! Who is it? Let me out!”

The Bavarian brothers raced toward the cry, passing Pete and Bob. They crashed through the woods, breaking branches, nailing with their arms. The boys stumbled after them. Suddenly, in a little gully, there was a cabin.

It was a rude affair of planks covered with tar paper, barely six feet square, with a tiny window high up near the roof. In several places the tar paper had peeled away, but on the crude door was a shiny hasp and a bright, new padlock. When the boys tumbled down the incline into the gully, Hans was heaving at the door with his shoulder.

The door didn’t give an inch.

“That is more solid than it looks,” said Konrad. “Don’t worry. Cousin Anna,” he called. “We will get a rock and break the lock.”

“There’s a fire.” The woman’s voice inside the cabin was rough with fear. “I smell a fire. Where is it?”

“Below, near the camping place.” Konrad had found a stone and was weighing it in his hands. “We still have time. We will get you out”

The woman was silent for a second, then said, “Who is there? Is it… is it Hans? Konrad?”

Konrad grinned and broke into a spatter of German, then began to pound at the padlock with the rock.

The wind gusted and blew the smoke thickly around them.

“Hurry!” said Hans.

Konrad nodded, and he raised the rock to give the padlock a mighty blow. And then a scream sounded behind him.

Hans, Konrad, and The Three Investigators whirled around. Above them, glaring down into the gully and beating at the stinging, acrid air, stood a gigantic humanoid figure. Jupe saw eyes glinting red, and he glimpsed teeth when the hairy creature threw back its head and howled with sheer animal terror.

“The monster!” Bob gulped and turned white.

“What is that?” cried the woman in the cabin. “What do I hear?”

“Shhh!” cautioned Jupe.

“Be quiet, Anna,” whispered Hans.

But the creature had heard. Anna’s cry had reached it through the panic. It lowered it’s huge head and brushed at the tangle of matted hair that hung almost to its eyes, and it stared through the smoke at Konrad.

Konrad stood frozen with his back to the door, the rock in his hand.

There was a low snarl from the being which had come upon them. The big head lunged forward, and then the beast was rushing at Konrad.

“Watch it!” Pete jumped to one side. The creature charged past, making straight for Konrad as if he had somehow caused the trouble and filled the air with smoke.

Konrad shouted and dived away from the door. The enormous creature crashed on, carried forward by the momentum of its charge. It struck the door, which collapsed inward with a terrible splintering sound. The great beast fell into the cabin on top of it.

And Anna screamed. She screamed as Jupe had never heard a person scream — keen, throat-tearing shrieks of pure terror. And mingled with Anna’s screams were the wails of the strange being which had crashed into the cabin.

 “Anna!” Konrad scrambled up from the ground, where he had fallen when he dodged the beast.

Hans took two steps toward the cabin, fearful, yet unable to ignore those agonized shrieks. “Anna! It will hurt Anna!”

“Not if we use our heads,” said a brisk, snappish voice. Mr. Smathers trotted out of the trees at the bottom of the gully, looking fearfully grimy. His eyes were watering even more than usual.

“Don’t move,” he ordered. “Everyone stay right where they are and leave this to me.” With that, he scooted past The Three Investigators and the astonished Hans and Konrad, and disappeared into the cabin.

Mr. Smathers had barely entered the cabin when the terrible wailing ceased.

“There, there,” the boys heard Smathers say. “I know it’s bad, but you’ll be all right.”

Something growled.

“I know, I know,” said Smathers. “But stay with me and you’ll be safe.”

The growling changed to a sound that was softer — almost a whimper.

“Come along, now,” coaxed Mr. Smathers. “Look how you’ve frightened the lady. Aren’t you ashamed?”

The Three Investigators looked at each other and wondered if they were dreaming.

Smathers appeared in the door of the cabin. Close behind him was the huge creature — a hulking, horrifying shape that looked half-human, half-animal. It trailed after Smathers as meekly as a well-trained dog might follow his master.

“We are going to the high country above the timberline,” Smathers informed the astounded spectators. “We’ll be safe there. Someone had better see to the woman. She is not in good shape.”

Smathers and his strange charge went off then, climbing rapidly through the trees. Soon they were lost in smoke.

“Anna?” Hans kicked aside bits of the splintered door and went into the cabin.

Konrad and The Three Investigators crowded in after him.

Anna Schmid was crouched against the far wall of the cabin. The little place was quite dark, but the boys could see that despite her disheveled clothing and tangled hair, she looked almost exactly like their hostess at the inn.

“Hans?” she said. “Konrad? Is it really you?”

“We have come to take you out, Anna.” Hans knelt beside her. “We must be quick. Can you stand?”

She tried, trembling and clutching at Hans. He helped her, holding her around the waist, and Konrad took her arm. “We will go fast, huh?” said Konrad.

She nodded. Tears began to run down her cheeks, making little clear tracks on her smudged face. “That animal,” she whispered. “What was that animal?”

“Let’s go now, Miss Schmid,” urged Jupiter. “We can talk later.”

When Anna Schmid stepped out of her prison into the smoked-filled daylight, she was as bent and feeble as an old woman. She had not gone many yards, however, before she lifted her head and managed to smile at Hans and Konrad. She straightened herself and squeezed her cousins’ hands.

“Hurry!” pleaded Bob.

“We will hurry,” said Anna.

By the time they came to the edge of the meadow, Anna was walking almost as rapidly as Pete, though she still held tight to her cousins.

They emerged from under the trees to see an awkward, big-bellied cargo plane pass overhead. It flew north, to the place where the smoke was thickest, then spewed out a cascade of liquid.

“A borate bomber,” said Bob. “Hope it can hold that fire down, or we may have to hike for the timberline, too.”

Pete jogged ahead of the group and was the first to cross the meadow. He stood at the top of the ski slope and looked down. “Hot dog!” he shouted.

“What is it?” called Jupe.

“There’s a bulldozer down there cutting a firebreak. I think they’ve got it made. Sky Village isn’t going to burn after all.”

“My inn?” said Anna. “Is my inn still there?”

“A little sooty, I guess,” said Pete, “but it’s still there.”

When Anna came to the ski slope, she hesitated for a moment to note the scene below. The bulldozer lumbered and roared as it cut a broad belt of clear earth between her inn and the fire. There was a milling, hurrying crowd of people on the road below. A second borate bomber flew overhead, then dumped its load on the flames.