Who sent you ?--Monsieur de Courtois himself, I suppose ?" Her voice, so wistful, so pleading, perfect in cadence yet almost childlike in its evident anxiety to be reassured, reached uncharted depths in his soul.

At once he began to ask himself why this mere girl should be exposed to the impish trick which fate had played on her, and, in the same breath, he was conscious of a fierce anger against the ghouls who had contrived it.
"Are you Miss Grandison ?" he asked, rather to gain time than because of any doubt as to her personality.
"Yes.

And you ?" "My name is Curtis--John D.Curtis.

I only landed in New York three hours ago." He added the explanatory sentence in order to clear the ground, as it were, for the strange and horrible story he had to tell, but its effect was curious in the extreme.

The girl's white face blanched to that wan hue which personal fear lends to distress.
"Where have you come from ?" she gasped.
"From Pekin." "From Pekin!" "Yes.