once more, but discovered no more
of importance. Deciding that the sleeping chamber could yield no further
clue he shut off the tell-tale ray and stepped noiselessly back into the
next room. Here he groped his way around until he encountered a door,
which stood open. A moment's cautious exploration with an outstretched
foot revealed the top step of a descending staircase. No faintest
glimmer of light was visible, but muffled sounds proceeding from the
depths told him that someone was below.

With infinite care, feeling his way gingerly over the rickety old steps
and fearful that an unexpected creak from one of the ancient boards
would at any moment prove his undoing, he commenced the descent. Once a
board did groan softly, causing him to stop in his tracks and stand with
bated breath. He listened for sign of a movement below, while his heart
loudly told off a dozen strokes. Stealthily he continued his progress,
until finally soft earth under his feet told him he had reached the
cellar bottom.

Now his straining eyes perceived a tiny bit of light, and simultaneously
he became conscious of a deathly stench. The damp earth padding his
footsteps, he advanced swiftly toward the source of light, which now
seemed to lie in stripes across his line of vision. He soon saw that the
stairs gave upon a small boarded-off section of the cellar proper, and
light was seeping between the boards. Ah, and here was a rickety door,
fortuitously equipped with a large knot-hole. O'Hara applied an eye to
this--and what he saw nearly ruined even his cast iron nerve.

* * * * *

The Professor was working beside a heavy wooden cask, from which issued
the horrible stench. From time to time a sodden thud told that he was
hacking something to pieces with an ax. Now and then he would strain
mightily at a dark and bulky thing which lay on the floor, a thing that
required considerable strength to lift. It seemed to be getting lighter
after each spasm of frenzied chopping. For a second Kell's shadow
wavered away from the thing, and the enervated newspaper man saw it
plainly. His senses almost left him as he realized that he was
witnessing the dismemberment of a human body.

As he hacked the fragments of tissue from the torso the fiend carefully
deposited each in the huge cask. At such times a faint boiling sound was
heard, and there arose an effluvium that bade fair to overcome even the
monster engaged in the foul wor