ering the barbaric impulses that
sometimes flamed up within, her, because _I_ willed it; indeed this was
a miracle that I never tired of witnessing.

Mrs. Oram, the white-haired housekeeper, placed her arm in motherly
fashion about the girl's slim waist.

"She wants to stay in my room until the trouble is all over," she said
in her refined, sweet voice.

"You are very good, Mrs. Oram," I replied. "Take care of her."

One long, reassuring glance I gave Karamaneh, then turned and
followed Smith and Sir Lionel up the winding oak stair. Kennedy came
close behind me, carrying one of the acetylene head-lamps of the car.
And--

"Just listen to the lioness, sir!" he whispered. "It's not the
gathering storm that's making her so restless. Jungle beasts grow
quiet, as a rule, when there's thunder about."

The snarling of the great creature was plainly audible, distant though
we were from her cage.

"Through your room, Barton!" snapped Nayland Smith, when we gained the
top corridor.

He was his old, masterful self once more, and his voice was vibrant
with that suppressed excitement which I knew well. Into the disorderly
sleeping apartment of the baronet we hurried, and Smith made for the
recess near the bed which concealed a door in the paneling.

"Cautiously here!" cried Smith. "Follow immediately behind me, Kennedy,
and throw the beam ahead. Hold the lamp well to the left."

In we filed, into that ancient passage which had figured in many a
black deed but had never served the ends of a more evil plotter than
the awful Chinaman who so recently had rediscovered it.

Down we marched, and down, but not to the base of the tower, as I had
anticipated. At a point which I judged to be about level with the
first floor of the house, Smith--who had been audibly counting the
steps--paused, and began to examine the seemingly unbroken masonry
of the wall.

"We have to remember," he muttered, "that this passage may be blocked
up or otherwise impassable, and that Fu-Manchu may know of another
entrance. Furthermore, since the plan is lost, I have to rely upon
my memory for the exact position of the door."

He was feeling about in the crevices between the stone blocks of which
the wall was constructed.

"Twenty-one steps," he muttered; "I feel certain."

Suddenly it seemed that his quest had proved successful.

"Ah!" he cried--"the ring!"

I saw that he had drawn out a large iron ring from some crevice in
which it had been c