e
world, aided and abetted by the secret group of nobles who had
surrounded him in the days of his pomp and power.

* * * * *

Old men, all of those in the first line! Madmen too, perhaps, as
madness begets madness. Behind them, younger men, infected by the
strange malady, and enthusiastic for their desperate cause.

Yes, Dick knew this Invisible Emperor, lurking here in his underground
palace. He knew Von Kettler, too, in the second line, close to the
Emperor's throne. And, among the women in their robes, grouped
picturesquely about that throne, he knew Fredegonde Valmy.

Dark-haired beneath her coronet, of radiant beauty, she fixed her eyes
upon Dick's. Not a muscle of her face quivered.

Then only did Dick see something else, which he had not hitherto
observed, owing to its concealment by the robes of those grouped about
the Emperor, and the sight of it sent such a thrill of fury through
him that he stood where he was, unable to speak or move a muscle.

The throne was set on a sort of dais, with three steps in front of it.
The lowest of these steps was hollow. Within this hollow appeared the
head and shoulders of a man.

An elderly man clothed in parti-colored red and yellow, the
time-honored garment of court fools. He was on his hands and knees,
and the round of his back fitted into the hollow of the step, and had
a flat board over it, so that the Emperor, in ascending his throne,
would place his foot upon it.

He was kept in that position with heavy chains of what looked like
gold, which passed about his neck and arms, and fitted into heavy gold
staples in the wood. And the old man was President Hargreaves of the
United States!

* * * * *

The President of the American Republic, chained as a footstool for the
Invisible Emperor, the madman who defied the world. Dick stood
petrified, staring into the mild face of the old man, still incapable
of speech. Then a herald, carrying a long trumpet, to which a square
banner was attached, strode forward from one side of the grotesque
assemblage.

"Dog, on your knees when His Majesty deigns to admit you to the
Presence!" he shouted.

The guard at Dick's side prodded him with his glass rod.

Then the storm of mad fury in Dick's heart released limbs and voice.
The cry that came from his lips was like nothing human. He leaped upon
the guard with a swift uppercut that sent him sprawling.

The glass ro