e
you to see anything. But I shall go on. Whatever it is, I wish to find
out.'

'But Haddo? Supposing he is there, waiting? Perhaps you are only walking
into a trap that he has set for you.'

'I am convinced that Haddo is dead.'

Again that unintelligible jargon, unhuman and shrill, fell upon their
ears, and Arthur stepped forward. Susie did not hesitate. She was
prepared to follow him anywhere. He opened the door, and there was a
sudden quiet. Whatever made those sounds was there. It was a larger room
than any on the others and much higher, for it ran along the whole front
of the house. The powerful lamps showed every corner of it at once, but,
above, the beams of the open ceiling were dark with shadow. And here the
nauseous odour, which had struck them before, was so overpowering that
for a while they could not go in. It was indescribably foul. Even Arthur
thought it would make him sick, and he looked at the windows to see if it
was possible to open them; but it seemed they were hermetically closed.
The extreme warmth made the air more overpowering. There were four
furnaces here, and they were all alight. In order to give out more heat
and to burn slowly, the fronts of them were open, and one could see that
they were filled with glowing coke.

The room was furnished no differently from the others, but to the various
instruments for chemical operations on a large scale were added all
manner of electrical appliances. Several books were lying about, and one
had been left open face downwards on the edge of a table. But what
immediately attracted their attention was a row of those large glass
vessels like that which they had seen in the adjoining room. Each was
covered with a white cloth. They hesitated a moment, for they knew that
here they were face to face with the great enigma. At last Arthur pulled
away the cloth from one. None of them spoke. They stared with astonished
eyes. For here, too, was a strange mass of flesh, almost as large as a
new-born child, but there was in it the beginnings of something ghastly
human. It was shaped vaguely like an infant, but the legs were joined
together so that it looked like a mummy rolled up in its coverings.
There were neither feet nor knees. The trunk was formless, but there
was a curious thickening on each side; it was as if a modeller had meant
to make a figure with the arms loosely bent, but had left the work
unfinished so that they were still one with the body. There was