n their grasp, but
now suddenly he stiffened. The eyes underwent another startling change,
this time glowing undoubtedly with the look of reason. Bland was
mystified and waited for Perry to explain his queer conduct. The latter
seemed finally to come to. Simultaneously he realized that his peculiar
lapse from consciousness had been observed by the others.

"Guess I may as well admit it," he said with a wry smile. "Ever since I
came back from my assignment with Kell I have had a hell of a time. Half
the time I have been in a daze and have not had the least idea what I
was doing. Funny part of it is that I have seemed to keep right on doing
things even while I was out of my head." He told briefly of the visions
he had had in which he had seemed to contend with his brother reporter,
the horrid sensations as he felt himself overcome, the black oblivion in
which he then found himself, and the mysterious manner in which he had
left Keegan on that ill-fated assignment.

"What have you done to Handlon?" Jimmie's voice cut in. He was standing
over the form of the maniac, rigid and menacing. "You have exactly two
minutes to go."

"Find out for yourself!" snarled the bruised and battered fiend.

"I will," was the answer, and on the instant a horrible shriek rent the
air. Jimmie had quickly grasped both of the Professor's arms at the
wrists and was slowly twisting them in a grip of iron. Kell's face went
white, the lips writhed back over toothless gums, the eyes closed in the
supreme effort to withstand the excruciating pain. Then--

"Enough, enough!" he screamed.

* * * * *

O'Hara eased the pressure slightly but retained his hold upon the
clawlike hands. "Talk fast," he ordered.

The old man struggled futilely in the grasp of the powerful reporter,
finally glancing in the direction of the others. Would they show signs
of pity? Surely not Hard Boiled Bland. The Chief was watching the
struggles of the victim through a cloud of tobacco smoke which he was
slowly exhaling through his nose. The plainclothesman displayed no sign
of interest at all. The game was up!

"Very well," he said sullenly. "Handlon and Perry are both occupying the
same body."

"Wh-a-a-t?" roared Bland. "Jimmie, I guess you'll have to put the screws
to him some more. He's trying to make fools of us at the last minute!"

"No, no!" screamed the Professor. "What I say is true. I have been
working for years on my system of d