k.

"I think I have it now," said Lambert coolly.

"What?" asked Phillips.

"The original combination. I had forgotten one detail in the
excitement, and this threw me off. Now I believe I will succeed--in
one way or another. I warn you, be careful. I am about to release
forces which may get out of my control."

"Well, now, don't get reckless," begged Phillips nervously. The array
of machines had impressed him, even if Lambert did seem a fool.

"You insist upon remaining, so it is your own risk," said Lambert
coolly.

Lambert, in the strange robes, was a bizarre figure. The hood was
thrown back, exposing his pale, black-bearded face, the wan eyes with
dark circles under them, and the twitching lips.

"If you find yourself leaving this vale of tears," went on the
scientist, ironically, to the sleuth, "you will at least have the
comfort of realizing that as the sound-force disintegrates your mortal
form you are among the first of men to be attuned to the vibrations of
the unknown sound world. All matter is vibration; that has been
proven. A building of bricks, if shaken in the right manner, falls
into its component parts; a bridge, crossed by soldiers in certain
rhythmic time, is torn from its moorings. A tuning fork, receiving the
sound vibrations from one of a similar size and shape begins to
vibrate in turn. These are homely analogies, but applied to the less
familiar sound vibrations, which make up our atomic world, they may
help you to understand how the terrific forces I have discovered can
disintegrate flesh."

The scientist looked inquiringly at Phillips. As the sleuth did not
move, but sat with folded arms, Lambert shrugged and said, "I am
ready."

Lambert raised his hood, and Phillips said, in a spirit of bravado,
"You can't scare me out of here."

"Here goes the switch," cried Lambert.

He made the contact, as he had before. He stood for a moment, and this
time the current gained force. The experimenter pushed his lever all
the way over.

* * * * *

A terrible greenish-blue light suddenly illuminated the laboratory,
and through the air there came sound vibrations which seemed to tear
at Phillips' body. He found himself on the floor, knocked from his
chair, and he writhed this way and that, speechless, suffering a
torment of agony. His whole flesh seemed to tremble in unison with the
waves which emanated from the machines which Lambert manipulated.

After what se