s of half a minute. Then again came the ghostly rapping.

"Who's there?" I cried loudly.

Nothing stirred outside the door, and still I hesitated. To some who
read, my hesitancy may brand me childishly timid; but I, who had met
many of the dreadful creatures of Dr. Fu-Manchu, had good reason to
fear whomsoever or whatsoever rapped at midnight upon my door. Was I
likely to forget the great half-human ape, with the strength of four
lusty men, which once he had loosed upon us?--had I not cause to
remember his Burmese dacoits and Chinese stranglers?

No, I had just cause for dread, as I fully recognized when, snatching
the pistol from my pocket, I strode forward, flung wide the door, and
stood peering out into the black gulf of the stairhead.

Nothing, no one, appeared!

Conscious of a longing to cry out--if only that the sound of my own
voice might reassure me--I stood listening. The silence was complete.

"Who's there?" I cried again, and loudly enough to arrest the attention
of the occupant of the chambers opposite if he chanced to be at home.

None replied; and finding this phantom silence more nerve-racking than
any clamor, I stepped outside the door--and my heart gave a great leap,
then seemed to remain inert, in my breast....

Right and left of me, upon either side of the doorway, stood a dim
figure: I had walked deliberately into a trap!

The shock of the discovery paralyzed my mind for one instant. In the
next, and with the sinister pair closing swiftly upon me, I stepped
back--I stepped into the arms of some third assailant, who must have
entered the chambers by way of the open window and silently crept up
behind me!

So much I realized, and no more. A bag, reeking of some hashish-like
perfume, was clapped over my head and pressed firmly against mouth
and nostrils. I felt myself to be stifling--dying--and dropping into
a bottomless pit.

When I opened my eyes I failed for some time to realize that I was
conscious in the true sense of the word, that I was really awake.

I sat upon a bench covered with a red carpet, in a fair-sized room,
very simply furnished, in the Chinese manner, but having a two-leaved,
gilded door, which was shut. At the further end of this apartment was
a dais some three feet high, also carpeted with red, and upon it was
placed a very large cushion covered with a tiger skin.

Seated cross-legged upon the cushion was a Chinaman of most majestic
appearance. His countenance was tru