e bar the trap
behind yielded. A fourth blow sent the knob crashing through the gauze
material, and far out into some dark place beyond. There was a sound as
of a number of books falling.

He had burst the trap.

Up on the back of the chair he mounted, resting his bar against the
wall, and began in feverish haste to tear away the gauze concealing the
rectangular opening.

An almost overpowering perfume of roses was wafted into his face. In
front of him was blackness.

Having torn away all the gauze, he learned that the opening was some two
feet long by one foot high. Resting the bar across the ledge he
extended his head and shoulders forward through this opening into the
rose-scented place beyond, and without any great effort drew himself up
with his hands, so that, provided he could find some support upon
the other side, it would be a simple matter to draw himself through
entirely.

He felt about with his fingers, right and left, and in doing so
disturbed another row of books, which fell upon the floor beneath him.
He had apparently come out in the middle of a large book-shelf. To
the left of him projected the paper-covered door of the trap, at right
angles; above and below were book-laden shelves, and on the right there
had been other books, until his questing fingers had disturbed them.

M. Max, despite his weight, was an agile man. Clutching the shelf
beneath, he worked his way along to the right, gradually creeping
further and further into the darkened room, until at last he could draw
his feet through the opening and crouch sideways upon the shelf.

He lowered his left foot, sought for and found another shelf beneath,
and descended as by a ladder to the thickly carpeted floor. Grasping the
end of the bar, he pulled that weapon down; then he twisted the button
which converted his timepiece into an electric lantern, and, holding the
bar in one tensely quivering hand, looked rapidly about him.

This was a library; a small library, with bowls of roses set upon
tables, shelves, in gaps between the books, and one lying overturned
upon the floor. Although it was almost drowned by their overpowering
perfume, he detected a faint smell of powder. In one corner stood
a large writing-table with papers strewn carelessly upon it. Its
appointments were markedly Chinese in character, from the singular, gold
inkwell to the jade paperweight; markedly Chinese--and--FEMININE. A very
handsome screen lay upon the floor in fro