s, humidors, pipe racks, all that one could
desire for comfort. Two German duelling swords were crossed above the
mantel.

* * * * *

But beyond this corner everything was different. Parker saw the massed
windows of reddish-purple glass; he saw apparatus for which he had no
name, as well as some of the ordinary paraphernalia of the chemical
laboratory. There was wiring everywhere, and a multitude of lighting
fixtures. Utilitarian tables, desks and chairs were placed about with
mathematical precision. There were plates and strips of metal set into
the glass smooth flooring, which was broken by depressions and
elevations of unusual form.

The most striking thing in the room was a huge copper bowl that hung
inverted from the ceiling. In it, and extending down below the rim,
was what seemed to be a thick and stationary mist. It looked as though
the bowl had been filled with a silver gray mist and then turned
bottom side up. But the cloud did not fall or float away.

"I can think and speak best from my desk," Von Stein was saying.
"Please sit down facing me in the chair which Heinrich will place for
you. Then we will talk."

Heinrich rolled one of the overstuffed chairs noiselessly to a
position about six feet from the desk. Parker noticed a long metal
strip in the floor between him and the doctor.

Just then Hans wriggled forward and the artist scratched his ears, to
be rewarded by a grateful tongue. Again a command from Heinrich
brought the dog to heel, but the voice was not so gruff this time.
Together they returned to the fireplace.

Von Stein let his hands rest upon the desk top--a surface covered with
levers, electric switches, push buttons, and contrivances the nature
of which Parker could not guess. The doctor leaned forward. He threw
over a switch. The lights in the room became less bright. He pressed a
button. The Danse Macabre of Saint-Saens floated weirdly upon the
air, as though the music came from afar off.

"Is that part of the treatment?" asked Parker, with a faint smile.
"It's not cheering, exactly."

"Merely an idiosyncrasy of mine," answered Von Stein, showing his
teeth. "Before anything is done I must, in order to aid the
receptivity of your mind, go a little further with the explanation of
certain things which I mentioned the other day. I promise not to bore
you. More than that, Mr. Parker, I promise that you will be more
interested than you have ever been in an