nuff box? He prayed fervently that Dufrenne and his companions might in
some way work out a plan to set matters right.

Presently he fell to thinking of the snuff box, and its safety. How
fortunate it seemed, that the doctor and his man Mayer had overlooked
the opera hat. He wondered if they had thought of it since? It was clear
that they had not, else he would no longer be kept a prisoner. What was
the room beneath the laboratory used for? Its appearance had suggested
that it was not used at all--a mere lumber-room, a place for storing
boxes and crates. And then there flashed into his mind the thought,
where was he now? From the apparent distance of the ceiling, as shown by
the beam of light, he concluded that he was lying on the floor, a
conclusion which the hardness and coldness of the surface beneath him
amply proved. Evidently it was a floor of stone, or cement, not one of
wood. A certain sense of familiarity in his surroundings came over him.
The faint radiance which was diffused about him by the light cone showed
the walls before and on either side of him to be of uniform blackness,
unrelieved by any suggestion of windows. He strove with all his power to
pierce the shadowy gloom, to come upon some point of recognition, but
the darkness baffled him.

In one corner a huge shadow, bulking formless against the wall,
suggested the packing case behind which his opera hat had been tossed by
Mayer during the search the night before. The thought thrilled him with
renewed hope. What more likely place, after all, for Hartmann's
deviltries than this silent room beneath the laboratory? If he was lying
there now, and chance of escape should come, he might even yet be able
to take the missing snuff box with him.

The hours dragged interminably. He was conscious of a keen feeling of
pain, a smarting irritation, in his eyes, which caused tiny streams of
moisture to trickle beneath their lids and roll unheeded down his
cheeks. The muscles of his neck became sore and swollen, from his
incessant though useless effort to turn aside his head. A dull pain
began to shoot insistently through his temples, and his limbs became
numb and cold. The desire to escape from the relentless brilliance of
the light cone became unbearable; he felt as though, if relief did not
soon come, he would shriek out in a madness of terror. Then the
hopelessness of doing so became apparent, and he nerved himself with all
the power of his will to endure the ev