most
of the time, but had paid occasional visits to Europe. The other
man--the monster with the black skull cap--had been responsible for
the conduct of the European enterprises."

"Throughout this interview," interrupted Stuart, forgetful of the fact
that Miska had warned him of the futility of asking questions, "and
during others which you must have had with Fo-Hi, did you never obtain
a glimpse of his face?"

"Never! No one has ever seen his face! I know that his eyes are a
brilliant and unnatural yellow colour, but otherwise I should not
know him if I saw him unveiled, to-morrow. Except," she added, "by a
sense of loathing which his presence inspires in me. But I must hurry.
If you interrupt me, I shall not have time.

"From that day in Cairo--oh! how can I tell you! I began the life of
an adventuress! I do not deny it. I came here to confess it to you. I
went to New York, to London, to Paris, to Petrograd; I went all over
the world. I had beautiful dresses, jewels, admiration--all that women
live for! And in the midst of it all mine was the life of the
cloister; no nun could be more secluded!

"I see the question in your eyes--why did I do it? Why did I lure men
into the clutches of Fo-Hi? For this is what I did; and when I have
failed, I have been punished."

Stuart shrank from her.

"You confess," he said hoarsely, "that you knowing lured men to
_death?"_

"Ah, no!" she whispered, looking about her fearfully--"never! never!
I swear it--never!"

"Then"--he stared at her blankly--"I do not understand you!"

"I dare not make it clearer--now: I dare not--dare not! But _believe_
me! Oh, please, please," she pleaded, her soft voice dropping to a
whisper--"believe me! If you know what I risked to tell you so much,
you would be more merciful. A horror which cannot be described"--again
she shuddered--"will fall upon me if _he_ ever suspects! You think me
young and full of life, with all the world before me. You do not know.
I am, literally, _already dead!_ Oh! I have followed a strange career.
I have danced in a Paris theatre and I have sold flowers in Rome; I
have had my box at the Opera and I have filled opium pipes in a den at
San Francisco! But never, never have I lured a man to his death. And
through it all, from first to last, no man has so much as kissed my
finger-tips!

"At a word, at a sign, I have been compelled to go from Monte Carlo to
Buenos Ayres; at another sign from there to Tokio! Chunda Lal