ng. Now, as he watched the
purple shaded lamp above him, he observed that it was swaying and moving
very gently, whereas hitherto it had floated motionless in the still
air.

No other sound came to guide him, and to have glanced upward would have
been to betray all.

For the second time that night he became aware of one who watched him,
became conscious of observation without the guaranty of his physical
senses. And beneath this new surveillance, there grew up such a
revulsion of his inner being as he had rarely experienced. The perfume
of ROSES became perceptible; and for some occult reason, its fragrance
DISGUSTED.

It was as though a faint draught from the opened shutter poured into the
apartment an impalpable cloud of evil; the very soul of the Eurasian,
had it taken vapory form and enveloped him, could not have created a
greater turmoil of his senses than this!

Some sinister and definitely malignant intelligence was focussed upon
him; or was this a chimera of his imagination? Could it be that now he
was become en rapport with the thought-forms created in that chamber by
its successive occupants?

Scores, perhaps hundreds of brains had there partaken of the unholy
sacrament of opium; thousands, millions of evil carnivals had trailed in
impish procession about that bed. He knew enough of the creative power
of thought to be aware that a sensitive mind coming into contact with
such an atmosphere could not fail to respond in some degree to the
suggestions, to the elemental hypnosis, of the place.

Was he, owing to his self-induced receptivity of mind, redreaming the
evil dreams of those who had occupied that bed before him?

It might be so, but, whatever the explanation, he found himself unable
to shake off that uncanny sensation of being watched, studied, by a
powerful and inimical intelligence.

Mr. King!... Mr. King was watching him!

The director of that group, whose structure was founded upon the
wreckage of human souls, was watching him! Because of a certain
sympathy which existed between his present emotions and those which had
threatened to obsess him whilst the Eurasian was in the room, he half
believed that it was she who peered down at him, now... or she, and
another.

The lamp swung gently to and fro, turning slowly to the right and
then revolving again to the left, giving life in its gyrations to
the intermingled figures on the walls. The atmosphere of the room was
nauseating; it was beginnin