ful Order which I propose to recount. It is one
of the most persistent dealing with the Hashishin, and is related
to-day of the apparently mythical Hassan of Aleppo. I am disposed
to believe that at one time it had a solid foundation, for a
similar practice was common in Ancient Egypt and is mentioned by
Georg Ebers."

My door began very slowly to open!

Merciful God! What was coming into the room!

So very slowly, so gently, nay, all but imperceptibly, did it move,
that had my nerves been less keenly attuned I doubt not I should
have remained unaware of the happening. Frozen with horror, I sat
and watched. Yet my mental condition was a singular one.

My direct gaze never quitted the door, but in some strange fashion
I saw the words of the next paragraph upon the page before me!

"As making peculiarly efficient assassins, when under the influence
of the drug, and as being capable of concealing themselves where
a normal man could not fail to be detected--"

(At this moment I remembered that my bathroom window was open, and
that the waste-pipe passed down the exterior wall.)

"--the Sheikh-al-jebal took young boys of a certain desert tribe,
and for eight hours of every day, until their puberty, confined them
in a wooden frame--"

What looked like a reed was slowly inserted through the opening
between door and doorpost! It was brought gradually around
... until it pointed directly toward me!

I seemed to put forth a mighty mental effort, shaking off the icy
hand of fear which held me inactive in my chair. A saving instinct
warned me--and I ducked my head.

Something whirred past me and struck the wall behind.

Revolver in hand, I leapt across the room, dashed the door open,
and fired blindly--again--and again--and again--down the
passage.

And in the brief gleams I saw it!

I cannot call it man, but I saw the thing which, I doubt not, had
killed poor Deeping with the crescent-knife and had propelled a
poison-dart at me.

It was a tiny dwarf! Neither within nor without a freak exhibition
had I seen so small a human being! A kind of supernatural dread
gripped me by the throat at sight of it. As it turned with animal
activity and bounded into my bathroom, I caught a three-quarter
view of the creature's swollen, incredible head--which was nearly
as large as that of a normal man!

Never while my mind serves me can I forget that yellow, grinning
face and those canine fangs--the tigerish, blazing ey