and like
us!--would persuade me to put this power in your hands. But you dare
not kill me. In this brain, and there alone, is the great secret."

"You forget," Pachmann reminded him, "that in your baggage is a complete
machine. We do not really need you."

At the words, Vard burst into a shout of mad laughter. Pachmann watched
him, and his face fell into haggard lines.

"So that is it!" jeered the inventor, when he had got his breath. "So
that is the great plot! Well, Pachmann, to that I answer, 'Checkmate!'
Go, get the baggage! You are welcome to all you find there!"

"You mean the machine is not there?" demanded Pachmann, thickly.

"Just that!"

"Where is it then?"

Gazing into his adversary's bloodshot eyes, Vard had another burst of
strangling laughter.

"I have already told you," he said. "In this brain--there alone--there
alone!" His face was red now, strangely red, and his words were queerly
jumbled.

Pachmann sat looking at him for a moment, then he rose.

"We shall soon see if you are speaking the truth," he said. "Whether you
are or not makes no difference. If there is no machine in your baggage,
you shall construct for us another."

"Oh, shall I!" screamed Vard, also springing to his feet. "Shall I! How
good of you, that permission!"

"You shall construct another!" repeated Pachmann, between clenched
teeth. "Oh, you will be glad to consent, once I turn the screw! Come,
Prince."

He tapped at the door, and there came from outside the scrape of a
sliding bolt. Then, standing aside for the Prince to pass, he looked
once at Vard, and turned to cross the threshold.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE TURN OF THE SCREW

It was a moment later that Kasia Vard, still sitting at the window
staring out into the court, searching desperately through her brain for
some plan of escape, was brought quivering to her feet by a shrill
scream, followed by the sound of a terrible struggle on the floor above.
There was a heavy tramping to and fro, the thud of falling furniture, a
dull crash that shook the house--and then silence. It was over in a
moment, but she stood rigid for a moment longer, her hands against her
heart, then she flew to the door and wrenched at the knob.

The door did not yield. Panting with excitement, she snatched up a chair
and drove it with all her strength against the lower panel. The chair
flew to pieces in her hands, but the door held firm. And then, as she
looked about for another weapon,