. It was empty!

"Am I going mad?" he groaned. "Or------"

"You are wanted on the 'phone, sir."

It was the butler who had interrupted him. Rene descended to the
telephone, dazedly, but, recognizing the voice of Annesley, roused
himself.

"I'm leaving town to-night, Deacon," said Annesley, "for--well, many
reasons. But before I go I must give you a warning, though I rely on
you never to mention my name in the matter. Avoid the woman who calls
herself Madame de Medici; she'll break you. She's an adventuress, and
has a dangerous acquaintance with Eastern cults, and... I can't explain
properly...."

"Annesley! the Key!"

"It's the theft of the Key that has prompted me to speak, Deacon. Madame
has some sort of power--hypnotic power. She employed it on me once, to
my cost! Paul Harley, of Chancery Lane, can tell you more about her.
The house she's living in temporarily used to belong to a notorious
Eurasian, Zani Chada. To make a clean breast of it I daren't thwart her
openly; but I felt it up to me to tell you that she possesses the secret
of post-hypnotic suggestion. I may be wrong, but I think you stole that
Key!"

"I!"

"She hypnotized you at some time, and, by means of this uncanny power of
hers, ordered you to steal the Key of the Temple of Heaven in such and
such a fashion at a certain hour in the night..."

"I had a strange seizure while I was at her house...."

"Exactly! During that time you were receiving your hypnotic orders. You
would remember nothing of them until the time to execute them--which
would probably be during sleep. In a state of artificial somnambulism,
and under the direction of Madame's will, you became a burglar!"

As Madame de Medici's car drove off from the house of Colonel Deacon,
and Madame seated herself in the cushioned corner, up from amid the furs
upon the floor, where, dog-like, he had lain concealed, rose the little
yellow man from the Temple of Heaven. He extended eager hands toward
her, kneeling there, and spoke:

"Quick! quick!" he breathed. "You have it? The Key of the Temple."

Madame held in her hand an ivory Buddha. Inverting it she unscrewed the
pedestal, and out from the hollow inside the image dropped a gleaming
Key.

"Ah!" breathed the yellow man, and would have clutched it; but Madame
disdainfully raised her right hand which held the treasure, and with her
left hand thrust down the clutching yellow fingers.

She dropped the Key between her white skin and t