it best to let him disclose his plans in his own way, and kept
back the many eager questions that rose to my lips.

"It seems to me," said Sarakoff suddenly, "that England would be the
best place to try the experiment. There's a telegraph everywhere,
reporters in every village, and enough newspapers to carpet every square
inch of the land. In a word, it's a first-class place to watch the
results of an experiment."

"On a large scale?"

"On a gigantic scale--an experiment, ultimately, on the world."

I was puzzled and was anxious to draw him into fuller details.

"It would begin in England?" I asked carelessly.

He nodded.

"But it would spread. You remember how the last big outbreak of
influenza, which started in this country, spread like wildfire until the
waves, passing east and west, met on the other side of the globe? That
was a big experiment."

"Of nature," I added.

He did not reply.

"An experiment of nature, you mean?" I urged. At the time of the last
big outburst of influenza which began in Russia, Sarakoff must have been
a student. Did he know anything about the origin of the mysterious and
fatal visitation?

"Yes, of nature," he replied at last, but not in a tone that satisfied
me. His manner intrigued me so much that I felt inclined to pursue the
subject, but at that moment we were interrupted in a singular way.

The door burst open, and into the room rushed a motley crowd of men.
Most of them were young students, but here and there I saw older men,
and at the head of the mob was a white-bearded individual, wearing an
astrachan cap, who brandished a copy of some Russian periodical in his
hand.

Belshazzar drew in his head with a hiss that I could hear even above
the clamour of this intrusion.

A furious colloquy began, which I could not understand, since it was in
Russian. Sarakoff stood facing the angry crowd coolly enough, but that
he was inwardly roused to a dangerous degree, I could tell from his
gestures. The copy of the periodical was much in evidence. Fists were
shaken freely. The aged, white-bearded leader worked himself up into a
frenzy and finally jumped on the periodical, stamping it under his feet
until he was out of breath.

Then this excited band trooped out of the room and left us in peace.

"What is it?" I asked when their steps had died away.

Sarakoff shrugged his shoulders and then laughed. He picked up the
battered periodical and pointed to an article in it.

"I