er had answered my questions before
they were asked. Might he be a mind reader? Best to take no chances! I
made my conscious mind as blank as possible and gazed back at him. At
my side Foulet made a vague and uncertain noise in his throat.

"Your countries are afraid of me?" Fraser leaned forward, that smug,
vain smile curling his lips. "Your countries know there is a power
abroad stronger than they? They feel that between the twin horns of
economic pressure and the red menace they will be tossed to
destruction?

"Destruction?" repeated Foulet with all the vacant inflection of
idiocy.

"Tossed?" I asked imitating Foulet. But instantly I wondered if we
were taking the right tack for Fraser's eyes grew red with fury.

* * * * *

"Answer me!" he raged. "Tell me that your countries know that soon I
shall be master of the world! Tell me they are afraid of me! Tell me
that in the last three years I have slowly gained control of commerce,
of gold! Tell me that they know I hold the economic systems of the
world in the hollow of my hand! Tell me that not a government on earth
but knows it is hanging on the brink of disaster! And I--I put it
there! My agents spread the propaganda of ruin! My agents crashed your
Wall Street and broke your banks! I! I! I! Mad Algy Fraser!" He
stopped, gasping for breath. His face was scarlet. His eyes glowed
like red coals. Suddenly he burst into a cascade of maniacal laughter,
high, insane, terrible.

It took all my control to keep my eyes blank, my face devoid of
expression. Out of the tail of my eye I saw Foulet smiling, a vague,
idiotic smile of sympathy with Fraser's glee. But suddenly the glee
died--as suddenly as if a button had snapped off the current. He
leaned forward, his black eyes devouring our faces.

"They are afraid of me?" It was a whisper, sharply eager. "The world
knows I am Master?"

"Master," repeated Foulet. It wasn't quite a question, yet neither was
it sufficiently definite as an answer to arouse Fraser's suspicions.
To my relief it satisfied him. The congested blood drained out of his
face. His eyes lost their glare. He turned and for several minutes
tramped up and down the laboratory lost in thought. At last he came
back to us.

"I have changed my mind," he muttered. "Come with me."

Without a word we followed him, out through the door and down the
passageway. Out of the building he led us. The air was stirring with
the first br