to a point. On the other hand she seems to enjoy not
only freedom but every luxury. Therefore it may equally well be a lie.
Some slight colour is lent to her story by the extraordinary mode of
life which she followed in Paris. In the midst of Bohemianism she
remained secluded as an odalisque in some harem garden of Stambul,
whether by her own will or by will of another we do not know. One
little point her existence seems to strengthen: that we are dealing
with Easterns; for Zara el-Khala is partly of Eastern blood and her
follower Chunda Lal is a Hindu. _Eh bien._

"Consider the cowled man whose shadow Dr. Stuart has seen on two
occasions: once behind the curtain of his window and once cast by the
moonlight across the lawn of his house. The man himself he has never
seen. Now this hooded man cannot have been 'Le Balafre', for
'Le Balafre' was already dead at the time of his first appearance.
He may be 'The Scorpion'!"

Max paused impressively, looking around at those in the Commissioner's
room.

"For a moment I return to the man of the Wu Men Bridge. The man of
the Wu-Men Bridge was veiled and this one is hooded! The man of the
Wu-Men Bridge was known as 'The Scorpion,' and this one also is
associated with a scorpion. We will return yet again to this point
in a moment.

"Is there something else which we may learn from the experiences of
Dr. Stuart? Yes! We learn that 'The Scorpion' suddenly decides that
Dr. Stuart is dangerous, either because of his special knowledge
(which would be interesting) or because the 'Scorpion' believes that
he has become acquainted with the contents of the sealed envelope--
which is not so interesting although equally dangerous for Dr. Stuart.
'The Scorpion' acts. He pays a second visit, again accompanied by
Chunda Lal, who seems to be a kind of watch-dog who not only guards
the person of Zara el-Kahla but who also howls when danger threatens
the cowled man!

"And what is the weapon which the cowled man (who may be 'The
Scorpion') uses to remove Dr. Stuart? It is a frightful weapon, my
friends; it is a novel and deadly weapon. It is a weapon of which
science knows nothing--a blue ray of the colour produced by a Mercury
Vapour Lamp, according to Dr. Stuart who has seen it, and producing
an odour like that of a blast furnace according to myself, who smelled
it! Or this odour might have been caused by the fusing of the telephone;
for the blue ray destroys such fragile things as telephones