feet ... the throb of a motor. It stimulated me--that sound!
I must get to the telephone and cause the yellow car to be intercepted.

I staggered to my feet and groped my way along the hedge to where I
had observed a tree by means of which one might climb over. I was
dizzy as a drunken man; but I half climbed and half fell on to the
lawn. The windows were open. I rushed into the study of Dr. Stuart.

Pah! it was full of fumes. I looked around me. _Mon Dieu!_ I staggered.
For I knew that in this fume-laden room a thing more horrible and more
strange than any within my experience had taken place that night.

Part III

AT THE HOUSE OF AH-FANG-FU

CHAPTER I

THE BRAIN-THIEVES

The Assistant Commissioner lighted a cigarette. "It would appear,
then," he said, "that whilst some minor difficulties have been smoothed
away, we remain face to face with the major problem: who is
'The Scorpion' and to what end are his activities directed?"

Gaston Max shrugged his shoulders and smiled at Dr. Stuart.

"Let us see," he suggested, "what we really know about this 'Scorpion'.
Let us make a brief survey of our position in the matter. Let us take
first what we have learned of him--if it is a 'him' with whom we have
to deal--from the strange experiences of Dr. Stuart. Without attaching
too much importance to that episode five years ago on the Wu-Men
Bridge; perhaps he is not. We will talk about this one again presently.

"We come to the arrival on the scene of Zara el-Khala, also called
Mlle. Dorian. She comes because of what _I_ have told to the scarred
man from Paris, she comes to obtain that dangerous information which
is to be sent to Scotland Yard, she comes, in a word, from 'The
Scorpion.' We have two links binding the poor one 'Le Balafre' to
'The Scorpion': (1) his intimacy with Miguel and those others with
whom 'Scorpion' communicated by telephone; (2) his possession of the
golden ornament which lies there upon the table and which I took
from his pocket. What can we gather from the statement made to Dr.
Stuart by Mlle. Dorian? Let us study this point for a moment.

"In the first place we can only accept her words with a certain
skepticism. Her story may be nothing but a fabrication. However, it is
interesting because she claims to be the unwilling servant of a
dreaded master. She lays stress upon the fact that she is an Oriental
and does not enjoy the same freedom as a European woman. This is
possible, up