uid which may have
been identical with that boiling in the test-tube.

These things I perceived at a glance: then the filmy eyes of Dr.
Fu-Manchu were raised from the book, turned in my direction, and all
else was forgotten.

"I regret," came the sibilant voice, "that unpleasant measures were
necessary, but hesitation would have been fatal. I trust, Dr. Petrie,
that you suffer no inconvenience?"

To this speech no reply was possible, and I attempted none.

"You have long been aware of my esteem for your acquirements," continued
the Chinaman, his voice occasionally touching deep guttural notes, "and
you will appreciate the pleasure which this visit affords me. I kneel
at the feet of my silver Buddha. I look to you, when you shall have
overcome your prejudices--due to ignorance of my true motives--to assist
me in establishing that intellectual control which is destined to be the
new World Force. I bear you no malice for your ancient enmity, and even
now"--he waved one yellow hand toward the retort--"I am conducting an
experiment designed to convert you from your misunderstanding, and to
adjust your perspective."

Quite unemotionally he spoke, then turned again to his book, his
test-tube and retort, in the most matter-of-fact way imaginable. I do
not think the most frenzied outburst on his part, the most fiendish
threats, could have produced such effect upon me as those cold and
carefully calculated words, spoken in that unique voice which rang about
the room sibilantly. In its tones, in the glance of the green eyes,
in the very pose of the gaunt, high-shouldered body, there was
power--force.

I counted myself lost, and in view of the doctor's words, studied the
progress of the experiment with frightful interest. But a few moments
sufficed in which to realize that, for all my training, I knew as little
of chemistry--of chemistry as understood by this man's genius--as a
junior student in surgery knows of trephining. The process in
operation was a complete mystery to me; the means and the end alike
incomprehensible.

Thus, in the heavy silence of that room, a silence only broken by the
regular bubbling from the test tube, I found my attention straying from
the table to the other objects surrounding it; and at one of them my
gaze stopped and remained chained with horror.

It was a glass jar, some five feet in height and filled with viscous
fluid of a light amber color. Out from this peered a hideous, dog-like
face,