could only have germinated in
one mind--a scheme to cause me, your father, to--"

His voice failed and again his glance sought the weapon which lay so
close to his feet. Partly in order to hide his emotion, he stooped,
picked up the dagger, and threw it on the bed.

"For God's sake, sir," groaned Robert, "what were you doing here in my
room with--that!"

Dr. Cairn stood straightly upright and replied in an even voice:

"I was here to do murder!"

"_Murder_!"

"I was under a spell--no need to name its weaver; I thought that a
poisonous thing at last lay at my mercy, and by cunning means the
primitive evil within me was called up, and braving the laws of God
and man, I was about to slay that thing. Thank God!--"

He dropped upon his knees, silently bowed his head for a moment, and
then stood up, self-possessed again, as his son had always known him.
It had been a strange and awful awakening for Robert Cairn--to find
his room illuminated by a lurid light, and to find his own father
standing over him with a knife! But what had moved him even more
deeply than the fear of these things, had been the sight of the
emotion which had shaken that stern and unemotional man. Now, as he
gathered together his scattered wits, he began to perceive that a
malignant hand was moving above them, that his father, and himself,
were pawns, which had been moved mysteriously to a dreadful end.

A great disturbance had now arisen in the streets below, streams of
people it seemed, were pouring towards the harbour; but Dr. Cairn
pointed to an armchair.

"Sit down, Rob," he said. "I will tell my story, and you shall tell
yours. By comparing notes, we can arrive at some conclusion. Then we
must act. This is a fight to a finish, and I begin to doubt if we are
strong enough to win."

He took up the dagger and ran a critical glance over it, from the keen
point to the enamelled hilt.

"This is unique," he muttered, whilst his son, spellbound, watched
him; "the blade is as keen as if tempered but yesterday; yet it was
made full five thousand years ago, as the workmanship of the hilt
testifies. Rob, we deal with powers more than human! We have to cope
with a force which might have awed the greatest Masters which the
world has known. It would have called for all the knowledge, and all
the power of Apollonius of Tyana to have dealt with--_him_!"

"Antony Ferrara!"

"Undoubtedly, Rob! it was by the agency of Antony Ferrara that the
wireless m