th drawn swords and cocked pistols in their hands, while the
nine chairs on the dais were occupied by nine motionless figures
completely shrouded in garments of black cloth, wearing upon their heads
a curious pointed head-dress, also of black cloth, which completely hid
their heads and faces, but in which two holes were cut for them to see
through. Seated in one of the torture chairs, but with the torturing
apparatus now thrown out of gear, was a most dreadful-looking object
bearing the semblance of a terribly emaciated man, worn to mere skin and
bone by privation and suffering, clad in rags, his hair and beard long
and unkempt, his skin and features white and bloodless, his eyes dim
with anguish, the sweat of keen protracted agony still pouring out of
him, while three ruffianly-looking men clad in scarlet ministered to him
under Basset's supervision. A fourth figure in scarlet lay motionless
upon the nagged floor, his attitude proclaiming that death had suddenly
overtaken him, while a blue-rimmed puncture in the centre of his
forehead, from which blood still trickled, told clearly enough the
manner of his death.

For a long minute young Saint Leger gazed about him with fast increasing
horror as he realised the diabolical purpose of the several engines that
met his eye; then, gaspingly, he spoke.

"So!" he ejaculated. "This is the chamber in which you torture your
fellow creatures until in their agony they are fain to say whatever it
pleases you that they should say, even to denying their faith, is it,
senor?"

"Nay, senor," answered the Father Superior, "say not that it is _I_ who
do these things. I have already repudiated all responsibility for what
happens in this chamber. It is the Grand Inquisitor and his Assistant
Inquisitors who reign supreme here. There they sit; ask them."

George stalked across to the middle of the chamber, and wheeled about,
facing the row of nine motionless figures occupying the chairs.

"I mean to do so," he said, tersely. Then, addressing the nine, he
said:

"Senors, I have somewhat to say to you. But, first of all, be good
enough to remove your hoods, that I may see your faces. I like not to
talk with men whose features are hidden from me."

For a moment there was silence in the room, broken only by the low
murmurings of Basset, who was speaking to the unfortunate "subject" in
the chair. Then the figure occupying the middle chair on the dais rose
to his feet and, stretch