secret died with the man who
discovered it--in the great explosion at the Vortex Works in 1917. You
recall it? The T.N.T. factory? It shook all London, and fragments were
cast into three counties."

"I recall it perfectly well."

"You remember also the death of Dr. Kreener, the chief chemist? He died
in an endeavour to save some of the workpeople."

"I remember."

"He was the inventor of the process, but it was never put upon the
market. He was a singular man, sir; as was once said of him--'A Don Juan
of science.' Dame Nature gave him her heart unwooed. He trifled with
science as some men trifle with love, tossing aside with a smile
discoveries which would have made another famous. This"--tapping his
breast pocket--"was one of them."

"You astound me. Do I understand you to mean that Dr. Kreener had
invented a process for reducing any form of plant life to this
condition?"

"Almost any form," was the guarded reply. "And some forms of animal
life."

"What!"

"If you like"--the stranger leaned forward and grasped my arm--"I will
tell you the story of Dr. Kreener's last experiment."

I was now intensely interested. I had not forgotten the heroic death of
the man concerning whose work this chance acquaintance of mine seemed to
know so much. And in the cadaverous face of the stranger as he sat there
regarding me fixedly there was a promise and an allurement. I stood on
the verge of strange things; so that, looking into the deep-set eyes,
once again I felt the cloak being drawn about me, and I resigned myself
willingly to the illusion.

From the moment when he began to speak again until that when I rose and
followed him from Malay Jack's, as I shall presently relate, I became
oblivious of my surroundings. I lived and moved through those last
fevered hours in the lives of Dr. Kreener, Tcheriapin, the violinist,
and that other tragic figure around whom the story centred. I append:

THE STRANGER'S STORY

I asked you (said the man in the caped coat) if you had ever seen
Tcheriapin, and you replied that you had once heard him play. Having
once heard him play you will not have forgotten him. At that time,
although war still raged, all musical London was asking where he had
come from and to what nation he belonged. Then when he disappeared it
was variously reported, you will recall, that he had been shot as a spy
and that he had escaped from England and was serving with the Austrian
army. As to his parentage I can e