er in the library."

"Be very accurate, Mr. Logan," interrupted Smith, "in your description
of this visitor."

"I shall do my best," pursued Logan, closing his eyes again in
concentrated thought. "She wore evening dress, of a fantastic kind,
markedly Oriental in character, and had large gold rings in her ears.
A green embroidered shawl, with raised figures of white birds as a
design, took the place of a cloak. It was certainly of Eastern
workmanship, possibly Arab; and she wore it about her shoulders with
one corner thrown over her head--again, something like a _burnous_. She
was extremely dark, had jet-black, frizzy hair and very remarkable
eyes, the finest of their type I have ever seen. She possessed beauty
of a sort, of course, but without being exactly vulgar, it was what I
may term _ostentatious;_ and as I entered the library I found myself
at a loss to define her exact place in society--you understand what
I mean?"

We all nodded comprehendingly and awaited with intense interest the
resumption of the story. Mr. Logan had vividly described the Eurasian
Zarmi, the creature of Dr. Fu-Manchu.

"When the woman addressed me," he continued, "my surmise that she was
some kind of half-caste, probably a Eurasian, was confirmed by her
broken English. I shall not be misunderstood"--a slight embarrassment
became perceptible in his manner--"if I say that the visitor quite
openly tried to bewitch me; and since we are all human, you will
perhaps condone my conduct when I add that she succeeded, in a measure,
inasmuch as I consented to speak to Sir Baldwin, although he was
actually playing bridge at the time.

"Either my eloquence, or, to put it bluntly, the extraordinary fee
which the woman offered, resulted in Sir Baldwin's agreeing to abandon
his friends and accompany the visitor in a cab which was waiting to
see the patient."

"And who was the patient?" rapped Smith.

"According to the woman's account, the patient was her mother, who
had met with a street accident a week before. She gave the name of
the consultant who had been called in, and who, she stated, had
advised the opinion of Sir Baldwin. She represented that the matter
was urgent, and that it might be necessary to perform an operation
immediately in order to save the patient's life."

"But surely," I interrupted, in surprise, "Sir Baldwin did not take
his instruments?"

"He took his case with him--yes," replied Logan; "for he in turn
yielded to the appe