but it is not quite like your pepper because it is distilled
from a native root. In this bottle," he picked up the larger, "is a
Chinese oil which immediately relieves the pain which capsicum causes."

"What are you going to do?" asked Milburgh, struggling. "You dog! You
fiend!"

"With a little brush I will paint capsicum on these places." He touched
Milburgh's chest with his long white ringers. "Little by little,
millimetre by millimetre my brush will move, and you will experience such
pain as you have never experienced before. It is pain which will rack you
from head to foot, and will remain with you all your life in memory.
Sometimes," he said philosophically, "it drives me mad, but I do not
think it will drive you mad."

He took out the cork and dipped a little camel-hair brush in the mixture,
withdrawing it moist with fluid. He was watching Milburgh all the time,
and when the stout man opened his mouth to yell he thrust a silk
handkerchief, which he drew with lightning speed from his pocket, into
the open mouth.

"Wait, wait!" gasped the muffled voice of Milburgh. "I have something to
tell you--something that your master should know."

"That is very good," said Ling Chu coolly, and pulled out the
handkerchief. "You shall tell me the truth."

"What truth can I tell you?" asked the man, sweating with fear. Great
beads of sweat were lying on his face.

"You shall confess the truth that you killed Thornton Lyne," said Ling
Chu. "That is the only truth I want to hear."

"I swear I did not kill him! I swear it, I swear it!" raved the prisoner.
"Wait, wait!" he whimpered as the other picked up the handkerchief. "Do
you know what has happened to Miss Rider?"

The Chinaman checked his movement.

"To Miss Rider?" he said quickly. (He pronounced the word "Lider.")

Brokenly, gaspingly, breathlessly, Milburgh told the story of his meeting
with Sam Stay. In his distress and mental anguish he reproduced
faithfully not only every word, but every intonation, and the Chinaman
listened with half-closed eyes. Then, when Milburgh had finished, he put
down his bottle and thrust in the cork.

"My master would wish that the little woman should escape danger,"
he said. "To-night he does not return, so I must go myself to the
hospital--you can wait."

"Let me go," said Milburgh. "I will help you."

Ling Chu shook his head.

"You can wait," he said with a sinister smile. "I will go first to the
hospital and afterwards, if