emands for material that
would secure this development, and as blindly used it when it was given
her. Hence this marvellous voracity, this insatiable hunger, this
wonderful ravenousness; and hence also (there being nothing but the
physical part to receive this vast storing of energy) this strength
that is becoming almost hourly herculean, almost daily appalling. It is
becoming a serious ... narrow escape to-day. By some means, while I was
absent, it unscrewed the stopper of the silver feeding-pipe (which I
have already herein termed 'the artificial mouth'), and, in one of its
curious antics, allowed all the chyle to escape from its stomach
through the tube. Its hunger then became intense--I may say furious. I
placed my hands upon it to push it into a chair, when, feeling my
touch, it caught me, clasped me around the neck, and would have crushed
me to death instantly had I not slipped from its powerful grasp. Thus I
always had to be on my guard. I have provided the screw stopper with a
spring catch, and ... usually docile when not hungry; slow and heavy in
its movements, which are, of course, purely unconscious; any apparent
excitement in movement being due to local irregularities in the
blood-supply of the cerebellum, which, if I did not have it enclosed in
a silver case that is immovable, I should expose and ..."

The captain looked at the detective with a puzzled air.

"I don't understand it at all," said he.

"Nor I," agreed the detective.

"What do you propose to do?"

"Make a raid."

"Do you want a man?"

"Three. The strongest men in your district."

"Why, the surgeon is old and weak!"

"Nevertheless, I want three strong men; and for that matter, prudence
really advises me to take twenty."

* * * * *

At one o'clock the next morning a cautious, scratching sound might have
been heard in the ceiling of the surgeon's operating-room. Shortly
afterwards the skylight sash was carefully raised and laid aside. A man
peered into the opening. Nothing could be heard.

"That is singular," thought the detective.

He cautiously lowered himself to the floor by a rope, and then stood
for some moments listening intently. There was a dead silence. He shot
the slide of a dark-lantern, and rapidly swept the room with the light.
It was bare, with the exception of a strong iron staple and ring,
screwed to the floor in the centre of the room, with a heavy chain
attached. The detect