end I have in my life! It is
you who have rid me of my great burden. Tell me--help me a little with my
story--have you read that page from the _Medical Journal_ which Craig has
kept locked up all these years?"

"We have all read it," Quest replied.

"It was forged," the Professor declared firmly, "forged by Craig. All the
years since, he has blackmailed me. I have been his servant and his tool.
I have been afraid to speak. At last I am free of him. Thank God!"

"Craig, after all," French muttered.

The Professor sat with a faint, wistful smile upon the corners of his
lips, looking around at all of them. His face had become like the face of
a child, eager for sympathy and kindness.

"You will trust me, I know," he continued. "You will believe me. All my
life I have laboured for science. I have never been selfish. I have laid
up no store of gold or treasure. Knowledge has been my mistress, knowledge
has been my heaven. If I had been a wise man, I would have ridden myself
of this hideous burden, but I was foolish and afraid. I wanted to pursue
my studies, I wanted to be left in peace, so I let that fiend prey upon my
fears. But now--now I feel that the burden has rolled away. I shall tell
you my story, and afterwards I will do great things yet, great things for
science, great things for the world."

They listened to him, spellbound. Only Lenora stood a little apart with a
faint frown upon her forehead. She touched Quest on the shoulder.

"Mr. Quest," she murmured, "he is lying!"

Quest turned his head. His lips scarcely moved.

"What do you mean?" he whispered.

"He is lying!" Lenora insisted. "I tell you there's another creature
there, something we don't understand. Let me bring the Electro-thought
transference apparatus; let us read his mind. If I am wrong, I will go
down on my knees and beg for forgiveness."

Quest nodded. Lenora hastened to the further end of the room, snatched the
cloth from the instrument and wheeled down the little mirror with its
coils and levers. The Professor watched her. Slowly his face changed. The
benevolence faded away, his teeth for a moment showed in something which
was almost a snarl.

"You believe me?" he cried, turning to Quest. "You are not going to try
that horrible thing on me--Professor Lord Ashleigh? I am all broken up. I
am not fit for it. Look at my hands, how they shake."

"Professor," Quest said sternly, "we are surrounded by the shadow of some
terrible deeds for