Double Trouble

ld shrieks ma

oth, to find th

will leave our

arning from thes

arge us with

k out knowledge

gh to scorn the w

nd, seek certit

e Halcyo

e place gave him a vague impression of being engaged in the fine arts. A glimpse of an interior hung with Navajo blankets, Pueblo pottery, Dakota beadwork, and barbaric arms; the sound of a soprano practising Marchesi exercises; an easel seen through an open door and flanked by a Grand Rapids folding-bed with a plaster bust atop;

E Le

N

mellow note of a gong filled the place with a gentle alarum. It was soun

so high in the recess that none of its direct rays reached the corners of the apartment. A Persian rug lay in the center, and took the fullest light. There were no sharp edges of shadow, but instead there was a softly grad

lled as it neared in silent approach. It came through the last portière, on into

aid Amidon feebly, "m

and beckoned Amidon to follow. As they passed the first portière, that mellow and gentle gong-note welled softly again from some remote distance. At the second archway, it sounded ne

ises, he had reached that stage of amazedness where the evidential value of sensory impressions is destroyed. He covered his eyes with his hands, expecti

nd reds, and the floor was spread with rugs. With mouth redly ravening at him, and eyes emitting opalescent gleams, lay a great tiger-skin rug, upon which, on a kind of dais, sat a woman-

seemed to emanate f

fly from th

nd seemed, at that first glance, of oriental darkness. A great mass of dark-brown hair encircled the rather small face, and even in his first look, he noted at the temples twin strands of golden-blond which, carried out like rays in the fluffy halo about her brow, reappeared in all the twistings and turnings of the involved pile which crowned the graceful head. The yellow-and-black of the tiger appeared thus, from head to foot. It was afterward that he found out something of the secret of the peculiar fascination in the great dark eyes. One of them was gray, with that greenish tin

e Claire?

she. "How can I

g. She rose, not with the effort which marks the act in most, but lightly, as a flower rises from the touch of a breeze. She was tall and lithe, and all the curves

e you, my frien

eat trouble

she p

here I have been since June, 1896-and who is Eugene Brassfi

t of some disturbing influence which might account for su

we shall be able to tell y

und that I had lost five years-I forgot. And-o

all and pushed a button. The turb

tell Professor Blath

orian hastily-"Am

ued smoothly. "He has some very interesting things

a man of position; and sandalwood, Sudanese, Bedouins and illusions were ill for the green wound of his mystery-which, in all conscience, was