ections, you will be suspect. The fact that you have the book is
known."

"I know," he said.

"By whom?" she asked quickly.

"By Boolba, your servant."

She raised her hand to her lips, as if to suppress a cry. It was an odd
little trick of hers which he had noticed before.

"Boolba," she repeated. "Of course! That explains!"

At that moment the Grand Duke called him. The guests had dwindled away
to half a dozen.

"Your coffee, Mr. Hay, and some of our wonderful Russian kummel. You
will not find its like in any other part of the world."

Malcolm drank the coffee, gulped down the fiery liqueur, and replaced
the glass on the tray. He did not see the girl again, and half an hour
later he went up to his room, locked the door and undressed himself
slowly, declining the assistance which had been offered to him by the
trained valet.

From the open window came the heavy perfume of heliotrope, but it was
neither the garden scent nor the moderate quantity of wine he had taken,
nor the languid beauty of the night, which produced this delicious
sensation of weariness. He undressed and got into his pyjamas, then sat
at the end of his bed, his head between his hands.

He had sat for a long time like this, before he realized the strangeness
of his attitude and getting on to his feet, found himself swaying.

"Doped," he said, and sat down again.

There was little of his brain that was awake, but that little he worked
hard. He had been drugged. It was either in the kummel or in the coffee.
Nothing but dope would make him feel as he was feeling now. He fell into
bed and pulled the clothes about him. He wanted to keep awake to fight
off the effects of the stuff and, by an absurd perversion of reasoning,
he argued that he was in a more favourable position to carry out his
plan if he made himself comfortable in bed, than if he followed any
other course.

The drug worked slowly and erratically. He had moments of complete
unconsciousness with intervals which, if they were not free from the
effect of the agent, were at least lucid. One such interval must have
come after he had been in bed for about an hour, for he found himself
wide awake and lay listening to the thumping of his heart, which seemed
to shake the bed.

The room was bathed in a soft green light, for it was a night of full
moon. He could see dimly the furniture and the subdued gleam of silver
wall-sconce, that caught the ghostly light and gave it a more mysteriou